Beagles did indeed invent the term yellow beer. It's not quite accurate in that just to look at it you couldn't tell my Daisy Cutter pale ale from a Budweiser. In the bad old days if you wanted to get exotic with beer you usually went for a bock, or something you don't see anymore, dark beer, even Schlitz had a dark beer. It didn't taste much better, but maybe in your mind it was more flavorfull, like eating rye instead of white bread. But still once you hear the term yellow beer you know exactly what it means. And I generally agree that there is no such thing as bad beer, though I think I would prefer a cold glass of water (the real thing) to a light beer. And I couldn't agree more about free beer.
I was at the Ten Cat early today to show an old Champaign buddy my show before it comes down and Dick the owner happened to be there and I got to ask him something I have been wondering about. When I left Champaign draft beer was served in 12 oz Pilsner (hourglass shaped) glasses, and it was likewise in Texas, and the same for Chicago when I first got back here in 1987. I started spending my Friday nights at the Ten Cat in 2005 and by then all beer was served in pint glasses. What I was wondering about was the transition. Was there a time when the Pilsner and pint glasses coexisted, when if you asked for a beer you might be asked, 12 oz or 16? Dick said they opened the Ten Cat in 1991 (April 10th) and by that time Pilsner glasses were history.
I guess Dump's speech will be tonight. I don't know if I'll be able to bear it. Yesterday afternoon I was listening to the guy running the house investigative committee, Chaffetz? I'm not sure, and googling around I can't find it, but the gist was that he was saying there were no indications that Dump was playing footsie with Putin, and even if he was that was probably a good thing so no reason to investigate, nothing going on here, move along. All the republican Senate and House investigators are saying the same thing. How low will Dump's polls have to go before they have any guts? Or maybe they have all been seduced by his short fingered charm. Look at Li'l Reince, all puffed up to be vulgarly bad-mouthing the press just like the big boys.
That backspace thing, like Beagles's Windows 10 seems to have fixed itself, so maybe I will proceed with my Texas story.
Kind of weird all of a sudden becoming a Yankee. There was some ill feeling among the populace about all these Yankees coming down to compete for their jobs and bringing their snow with them (it snowed twice that first winter I was there, unprecedented), and worse, prompting the Texas Chili Parlor, a civic institute just north of downtown, to include beans and tomatoes in their chili. If I listened closely behind my back I could hear some mocking of my accent. But back in Illinois I had mocked Texas accents plenty, and by in large the people were nice.
But they weren't getting me any jobs, nothing happened on that front for awhile, but then I joined a temp agency and they sent me off to work for the attorney general. It was a classic bureaucratic job, different colored forms, paperclips, things had to be just so or else we sent them back to be put in the proper form. Which was a little unfortunate because they were forms from attorney general offices across the state and what they were trying to do was get child support for kids. I think it was a deal where if the woman could prove that there was no way she could get a red cent from the bastard the state would kick in something, and the forms had to be just so to prove that, so if some bureaucrat at the local office filled out the paperwork in a way which we bigger bureaucrats in Austin didn't like then we kicked it right back and baby had to wait for that new pair of shoes.
Another job was where child support checks came in, but there was no indication of which child was being supported. We had lists of all the guys who owed child support and we used that to try to figure out which check went with which child. It was an inexact science and who knows where those checks ended up, and it seemed like it would be easy for somebody to well, slip a few of them into their pocket or purse.
This was my first experience in working in an office and I was shocked, shocked, I was used to working in restaurants and there was a rough honesty going on there. If you didn't like somebody you were pretty open about it and expected the same from them. But nobody was honest to anybody else's face in the office. I remember one time after closing one of the women went off on a blue streak about her boss and on and on and on. One phrase I remember because I was to hear it often during my office odyssey, "The reason they don't like me is because I tell it like it is. I don't kiss ass like everybody else." This phrase was often spoken by the biggest ass kisser in every office.
Anyway I didn't expect to see this woman again after that, but Monday morning she was right back with the crew, and going off on that blue streak again as soon as the boss was out of the door. Just another day in the office. And it was a grim office. The work was dull and the women (they were all women for some teason) were drab and conversation was bitter and petty. But in the midst of all this there was Adelita, pretty, and always dressed up nice, and always cheerful. and bursting into snatches of song, and always nice to everybody, she was a tropical songbirdt among the sparrows.
Maybe a year after I left that job I was reading the Austin American Statesmen and there was a little article about goings on in the attorney general's office. Larceny. Check stealing. Adelita. My my. my.
Next installment: Uncle Ken's big break.
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Monday, February 27, 2017
Try It, You'll Like It
The first time I called Microsoft Support the guy told me, "Everybody hates Windows 10 at first but, once you get used to it, you'll think it's wonderful." I don't know about that, but I've gotten to the point that I find it tolerable.
After several days of trying to find out what error code 0x80072ee7 means, I tried to download the Windows 10 upgrade again without changing anything, and this time it sailed right through without a hitch. My Outlook mail program still doesn't work, but I have decided to just use my Google mail. They have made some improvements to it since the last time I used it, and I think I can live with it. Everything else seems to be working, although I'm not sure about my printer. I'll have to try that again one of these days. The last time, my computer was having a hard time locating the drivers for my printer, and I got tired of waiting for it and signed off for the night.
The good news is that Windows 10 is the final product, there will never be a Windows 11. Apparently they got tired of hearing all the complaints whenever they came out with a new OS, so now they are going to just update Windows 10 every three or four months. They will send me a notice when a new update becomes available, and I can download it at my convenience. It takes awhile, but I can minimize the display and do other things with my computer while the download is in progress. When the download is complete, however, there is another process where they have to install it, and I can't use my computer or turn it off until that's done. They didn't say I had to sit there and watch it, though, so I went to bed and let the damn thing run. Next day, I didn't notice anything different at first but, the day after that, I got a notice that Windows Defender wanted to do a security scan, I told it to go ahead, and it gave my machine a clean bill of health. Tonight, I was told that I should have firewall. That's a good thing, right? I sure hope so, because I let them give me one. They said that, if I don't like any of this stuff, I can always uninstall it.
I hadn't been able to get my photo program to work, but my daughter told me another way to access it, and that seems to work just fine. That's probably the way I was supposed to do it on my old computer, but I never figured it out and stumbled onto a different way. When I first got into computers at work, back in the 80s, they told us that a computer only knows one way to do something and, if you don't ask it just right, it won't know what you're talking about. Nowadays, it seems like the damn thing can read your mind. Sometimes it knows what I want better than I do, and tells me so. The spooky thing is that it's usually right.
I think "yellow beer" is a term that I made up. I seem to remember being at my daughter's once, and she offered my several kinds of exotic designer brews. "Do you have any regular yellow beer?", I asked. She said, "Not really, but this one is pretty close." It wasn't, but there's no such thing as bad beer, and free beer is the best kind of all.
Lack of snow shouldn't hurt the moisture content of your soil, provided that you get enough rain to make up for it. They worry about it in California because their municipal water reservoirs are largely filled by mountain snow that melts in the spring. Last I heard, it looked like they were going to have plenty of that this year. Lack of snow cover can hurt crops that are already in the ground like winter wheat because the snow insulates the ground, preventing it from thawing and refreezing numerous times. Crops that haven't been planted yet should be alright, again, provided there is enough rain during the growing season. Fruit trees can be impacted if spring starts early and then reverts back to winter. What happens is the tree thinks it's time to put out buds which, at this stage, are vulnerable to freezing. Come to think of it, that's probably the origin of the phrase, "nip it in the bud". If the frost nips the blossom in the bud, that blossom won't develop into a fruit.
After several days of trying to find out what error code 0x80072ee7 means, I tried to download the Windows 10 upgrade again without changing anything, and this time it sailed right through without a hitch. My Outlook mail program still doesn't work, but I have decided to just use my Google mail. They have made some improvements to it since the last time I used it, and I think I can live with it. Everything else seems to be working, although I'm not sure about my printer. I'll have to try that again one of these days. The last time, my computer was having a hard time locating the drivers for my printer, and I got tired of waiting for it and signed off for the night.
The good news is that Windows 10 is the final product, there will never be a Windows 11. Apparently they got tired of hearing all the complaints whenever they came out with a new OS, so now they are going to just update Windows 10 every three or four months. They will send me a notice when a new update becomes available, and I can download it at my convenience. It takes awhile, but I can minimize the display and do other things with my computer while the download is in progress. When the download is complete, however, there is another process where they have to install it, and I can't use my computer or turn it off until that's done. They didn't say I had to sit there and watch it, though, so I went to bed and let the damn thing run. Next day, I didn't notice anything different at first but, the day after that, I got a notice that Windows Defender wanted to do a security scan, I told it to go ahead, and it gave my machine a clean bill of health. Tonight, I was told that I should have firewall. That's a good thing, right? I sure hope so, because I let them give me one. They said that, if I don't like any of this stuff, I can always uninstall it.
I hadn't been able to get my photo program to work, but my daughter told me another way to access it, and that seems to work just fine. That's probably the way I was supposed to do it on my old computer, but I never figured it out and stumbled onto a different way. When I first got into computers at work, back in the 80s, they told us that a computer only knows one way to do something and, if you don't ask it just right, it won't know what you're talking about. Nowadays, it seems like the damn thing can read your mind. Sometimes it knows what I want better than I do, and tells me so. The spooky thing is that it's usually right.
I think "yellow beer" is a term that I made up. I seem to remember being at my daughter's once, and she offered my several kinds of exotic designer brews. "Do you have any regular yellow beer?", I asked. She said, "Not really, but this one is pretty close." It wasn't, but there's no such thing as bad beer, and free beer is the best kind of all.
Lack of snow shouldn't hurt the moisture content of your soil, provided that you get enough rain to make up for it. They worry about it in California because their municipal water reservoirs are largely filled by mountain snow that melts in the spring. Last I heard, it looked like they were going to have plenty of that this year. Lack of snow cover can hurt crops that are already in the ground like winter wheat because the snow insulates the ground, preventing it from thawing and refreezing numerous times. Crops that haven't been planted yet should be alright, again, provided there is enough rain during the growing season. Fruit trees can be impacted if spring starts early and then reverts back to winter. What happens is the tree thinks it's time to put out buds which, at this stage, are vulnerable to freezing. Come to think of it, that's probably the origin of the phrase, "nip it in the bud". If the frost nips the blossom in the bud, that blossom won't develop into a fruit.
Crumbs from the keyboard
Where is Beagles?
He mentioned a visit from his daughter over the weekend , so he may just be living a normal life. But he also mentioned her experience with Windows 10, so they may have gotten mired in the process of problem solving. Mr. Beagles is sure to reveal all, in the fullness of time.
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Thanks for the continuation of your tale, Uncle Ken. Just that little bit about the food in Austin was enough to give the previous narrative the closure I felt it lacked. Many questions remain but they don't need answers any time soon.
The simplest solution to your backspace key problem is that the key is gunked up. Can you remove the keycaps and check for schmutz? A blast of contact cleaner may do the trick. Modern keyboards seem cheaply made to me and no longer use actual mechanical switches; they have to cut costs someplace and keyboards might be the earliest victims. Replacements are cheap enough, if worse comes to worst.
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Evidence of our mild winter in Chicago is at hand. Behold, a tweet from the National Weather Service: Chicago's about to do something its never done in 146 years of record keeping: go the entire months of Jan & Feb with no snow on the ground.
I don't know what that will mean for the spring growing season. Lack of snow means a lack of moisture for the soil, and that could mean retarded root development for all the green growing things. But lacking a sustained, deep freeze could mean more bugs which will make the birds happy. Have any farmers weighed in with their opinions of the mild winter?
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Look no further for evidence that #45 is not a fit human being to serve as our chief executive. Donald Trump might be the first US President in 150 years to not have a pet in the White House, and he is the first president since McKinley to not have a dog. Jeez, even Nixon had a dog.
Maybe he considers his young female staffers his "pets." Some creepy (and unfounded) rumors are starting to surface in the twitterverse.
Texas food and technical difficulties
Hamms comes from the land of sky blue waters and Coors is brewed with Rocky Mountain spring water, but you know, I don't know, I don't think so, I'm pretty sure that the makers of yellow beer treat their water so that it is all alike. But I've been wrong before so I went to the google machine and it was practically screaming about how important the water is, But this was mostly all home brewers, so maybe it's more important to them because they have to rely on tap water, but from the contents of the articles it seems like they too treat their water.
I was skeptical also about the purveyors of yellow beer changing their recipes. Why would they do that? Isn't the main virtue of yellow beer that you know exactly what you are getting? Back to the google machine and it was full of craft brewers and there was nothing about the big brewers. Anyway I could never tell the difference between yellow beers, Busch has an attractive can with all those mountains, you know like the ones that surround St Louis, and an attractive can is a good part of the battle with yellow beers. Budweiser on the other hand is like the evil empire of yellow beers, on the other hand I think they now own Goose Island who makes my home IPA.
Where is Beagles? Has Kali done something to him? Is she dancing on a new consort?
If Uncle Ken doesn't continue his story through 1985 I will feel cheated, but he is a sly rascal and full of surprises.
Does Old Dog really mean this? The part about me continuing my story, because I tell you, you won't get much napping when these jaws get to flapping.
I think I had enchiladas for the first time in Austin Texas. I had always loved Mexican food, well what was called Mexican food, which at first was those awful tv dinners, but I thought they were great at the time. Oh wait there were tamales too. The guy with the hot dog cart at 55th and Homan would sometimes reach deep into that sweet-smelling steamy cart and pull out a couple Tom Tom Tamales. Later there were those fast food joints, but all they had was burritos and tacos, enchiladas were a bit more complicated.
Good eating in Texas, besides the Tex Mex there was southern, okra and cornbread and chicken fried steak, the latter, for which I admit I never developed a taste. And there was bbq. We have bbq in Chicago now, but ten years ago it was hard to find and when you did it was mostly the sweet southern kind.
Time out for some technical difficulties. It's the backspace key. I have to hit it on the left side and hold it down and jiggle it a bit and even then sometimes it gets stuck and takes out the whole sentence. I am thinking off the plastic top and seeing if I can jiggle with the stuff underneath it to get it to work better, but I'll wait for advice from Old Dog who seems to know about these things.
Saturday, February 25, 2017
An unhappy troll
If Uncle Ken doesn't continue his story through 1985 I will feel cheated, but he is a sly rascal and full of surprises.
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Is "yellow beer" another term for the type of lager that is popular in these United States? I've gone through quite a number of "favorite" beers over the years, drinking them exclusively until I decided to try something else. I prefer draft instead of bottles/cans but it can be problematic if the lines aren't cleaned regularly or less than perfectly clean glassware is available. Lipstick smudges on the glass are never a good sign; a rare but not unknown occurrence.
I should go back and revisit some of my old favorites but I think I would get too loopy, too quickly. The nice thing about Guinness is that it has a reasonably low alcohol content and it's flavor is such that it discourages quick drinking. It takes time to enjoy a proper pint and I can linger in the tavern without getting wasted, an important factor whether taking public transportation or walking home.
There was supposed to be a merger between the two largest beer companies, InBev and SAB Miller, last October but I don't know if it went through. Such mergers don't bother me at all because I think they're going for market penetration and distribution and not the elimination of any breweries. Your locally produced swill will be more readily available across the globe unless they decided to brew it in more locations which, to me, is a problem. You can ship hops, malt, and barley across the world with no ill effect but not the water, and water may be the most important ingredient of all. I should ask the Half Acre guys about the water they use, whether they do more than simply filter Lake Michigan's finest.
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It was a small comfort for me to read that, despite all the yammering, the new regime has done very little. After five weeks (has it only been that long?) there are still hundreds of cabinet appointments yet to be made and it's all talk, talk, talk. Well, more accurately, lie, threaten, and complain. Whatever. The less they do, the better.
This coming Tuesday #45 is to address both houses of congress, which should be something. His support isn't rock solid and it would be amusing to see him booed; this could be the toughest crowd he's faced so far. It will be just him and the teleprompter but I expect him to go off on many tangents, perhaps inspiring an outright rebellion. I have plenty of popcorn on hand.
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Although there have been plenty of failed Kickstarter campaigns, here is one you many find interesting if you haven't seen it yet. Amazing how far the office of the president has fallen, but it's good for a laugh and would make a fine keepsake. Go to Kickstarter and search for Chuck Williams; you can't miss it.
Friday, February 24, 2017
1984, leaving Champaign
In the fall of 84 I was going nowhere. I had shopped around my junior college data processing certificate that I had earned three or four years earlier all over town and nobody was buying it. I had worked in the interim as a bartender and had a stint at the post office, but as the chill winds of late fall began to blow across the prairie I had no job, no prospects, no nothing.
The corn belt had become part of the rust belt, unemployment was rising in the region, downtown a lot of the stores were now empty windows. If Champaign had been further west tumbleweeds would be tumbling.
I got into something called The Job Club, It was for people who had been on unemployment for a long time. The idea was that looking for a job was a full-time job and you had to put in 40 hours a week at it. So you reported to this place in the morning and they fed you and they provided these resources on how to find a job, and telephones and this guy who went around with a positive mental attitude to raise your spirits, and you know, that kind of crap. They would have us assemble for pep talks and I guess that would raise us briefly, but once the pep talker was gone we would look around at each other and what a bunch of losers, and I was one of them.
Still I looked through their lists of employers and I made my phone calls and I changed my resume every other day, and nada, and I had been through every possible employer in town and they had all given me thumbs down, so the only thing to do was to leave town.
Leave town? It had never occurred to me until that moment in the Job Club. Austin Texas, everybody knew it was a boomtown. I knew a couple people who lived there. So there it was. When I had entered the Job Club that morning I was going nowhere and when I left that afternoon I was going to Texas.
It took a little while to take care of all the details. What about all my stuff? My cat? It was right after Christmas that I took off. I had my stuff all boxed up, I had left my keys with a friend who would come in later to be there when Fedex came to put it on their truck and moved it to Texas. I headed out to the bus stop in the snow with a suitcase in either hand.
The bus was late. I missed my train to Chicago. But there was another train in an hour. I spent Christmas at my parents' house and then I went back downtown to catch the Texas Eagle. The thing is I loved Chamapaign. All my beer drinking buddies lived there, I had a history of twenty years there. I knew it like the back of my hand. I hated to leave. Maybe I didn't have to.
I stopped in the doorway. I could go back. I paused maybe five seconds and then I pushed on. A couple days later I was walking through my new neighborhood on New Years Day and stopped at a convenience store to get an ice cream bar to cool off.
The corn belt had become part of the rust belt, unemployment was rising in the region, downtown a lot of the stores were now empty windows. If Champaign had been further west tumbleweeds would be tumbling.
I got into something called The Job Club, It was for people who had been on unemployment for a long time. The idea was that looking for a job was a full-time job and you had to put in 40 hours a week at it. So you reported to this place in the morning and they fed you and they provided these resources on how to find a job, and telephones and this guy who went around with a positive mental attitude to raise your spirits, and you know, that kind of crap. They would have us assemble for pep talks and I guess that would raise us briefly, but once the pep talker was gone we would look around at each other and what a bunch of losers, and I was one of them.
Still I looked through their lists of employers and I made my phone calls and I changed my resume every other day, and nada, and I had been through every possible employer in town and they had all given me thumbs down, so the only thing to do was to leave town.
Leave town? It had never occurred to me until that moment in the Job Club. Austin Texas, everybody knew it was a boomtown. I knew a couple people who lived there. So there it was. When I had entered the Job Club that morning I was going nowhere and when I left that afternoon I was going to Texas.
It took a little while to take care of all the details. What about all my stuff? My cat? It was right after Christmas that I took off. I had my stuff all boxed up, I had left my keys with a friend who would come in later to be there when Fedex came to put it on their truck and moved it to Texas. I headed out to the bus stop in the snow with a suitcase in either hand.
The bus was late. I missed my train to Chicago. But there was another train in an hour. I spent Christmas at my parents' house and then I went back downtown to catch the Texas Eagle. The thing is I loved Chamapaign. All my beer drinking buddies lived there, I had a history of twenty years there. I knew it like the back of my hand. I hated to leave. Maybe I didn't have to.
I stopped in the doorway. I could go back. I paused maybe five seconds and then I pushed on. A couple days later I was walking through my new neighborhood on New Years Day and stopped at a convenience store to get an ice cream bar to cool off.
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Ganesha Be Praised!
I used to know a chant about Ganesha, not sure of the spelling but it went something like this:
"Om Ganesha namaha......Ganga na na jai jai ganga anana." There was a group at Bliss Fest one year, I bought a cassette tape of them, which gives you a hint about how long ago it was. I still have it somewhere. I suppose I could dig it out and refresh my memory of that chant, but who's got time for that? Anyway, these guys were from Ann Arbor, Michigan and I was told they were Buddhists, but the chants they performed seemed to be about Hindu gods. I thought they were cool, so afterwards I got a book from the library about Hinduism. I thought that Hinduism made a lot of sense in theory, although I understand that it isn't always so pretty in practice, which can be said about a lot of religions.
See, the spellchecker flagged most of my Hindu words, which is not surprising, although it did approve of Om, ganga, and one of the jais, but not the other one, which is puzzling. I clicked on the spellcheck icon, both left and right. The left click got me nothing, and the right click got me four things, none of which seemed to be about spellchecking. (Select All, Print, Inspect Element, and View Source)....Go figure!
Outlook is indeed a Microsoft product, it replaced Windows Live Mail, which replaced Windows Mail, which replaced Outlook Express. My original g-mail account comes from Google, and the Outlook program is supposed to interface with that and display my mail with more options. Most of those options will never be used by me, and I seem to be able to do everything I want to with my Google program. I would let it go at that, but I paid for this thing, and it's supposed to work. In trying to solve this, I came across a notice that there is a Windows 10 upgrade that I need to download, but that didn't work either. It told me to check my settings, but it didn't tell me what my settings are supposed to be to enable this download......And the saga continues.
I quit drinking Milwaukee's Best when they changed their formula a few months ago. I tried Miller Genuine Draft, which I used to like, but it doesn't taste like I remember it. I then tried Busch, which is not a Miller product. I don't remember what that used to taste like, but they haven't changed their formula since 1950, and that's good enough for me.
I have held some lower level leadership positions, both in the army and at the paper mill. Not really management, more like a working foreman or straw boss. If there were three or four people who knew less about the job than I did, they would put me in charge of them. As in, "Take these four guys and go dig a hole." The last few years at the paper mill, they referred to me as a coordinator or a resource. 1984 was about the time I worked on a team that installed a new computerized control system in our process. That was my first experience with computer technology, and they said I had a talent for it. They sent me to Honeywell in Phoenix, Arizona for a week of training, and then I came back and trained the other operators. After the mill closed in 1990, I had no further dealings with computers until my daughter lured me into PCs in 2000.
"Om Ganesha namaha......Ganga na na jai jai ganga anana." There was a group at Bliss Fest one year, I bought a cassette tape of them, which gives you a hint about how long ago it was. I still have it somewhere. I suppose I could dig it out and refresh my memory of that chant, but who's got time for that? Anyway, these guys were from Ann Arbor, Michigan and I was told they were Buddhists, but the chants they performed seemed to be about Hindu gods. I thought they were cool, so afterwards I got a book from the library about Hinduism. I thought that Hinduism made a lot of sense in theory, although I understand that it isn't always so pretty in practice, which can be said about a lot of religions.
See, the spellchecker flagged most of my Hindu words, which is not surprising, although it did approve of Om, ganga, and one of the jais, but not the other one, which is puzzling. I clicked on the spellcheck icon, both left and right. The left click got me nothing, and the right click got me four things, none of which seemed to be about spellchecking. (Select All, Print, Inspect Element, and View Source)....Go figure!
Outlook is indeed a Microsoft product, it replaced Windows Live Mail, which replaced Windows Mail, which replaced Outlook Express. My original g-mail account comes from Google, and the Outlook program is supposed to interface with that and display my mail with more options. Most of those options will never be used by me, and I seem to be able to do everything I want to with my Google program. I would let it go at that, but I paid for this thing, and it's supposed to work. In trying to solve this, I came across a notice that there is a Windows 10 upgrade that I need to download, but that didn't work either. It told me to check my settings, but it didn't tell me what my settings are supposed to be to enable this download......And the saga continues.
I quit drinking Milwaukee's Best when they changed their formula a few months ago. I tried Miller Genuine Draft, which I used to like, but it doesn't taste like I remember it. I then tried Busch, which is not a Miller product. I don't remember what that used to taste like, but they haven't changed their formula since 1950, and that's good enough for me.
I have held some lower level leadership positions, both in the army and at the paper mill. Not really management, more like a working foreman or straw boss. If there were three or four people who knew less about the job than I did, they would put me in charge of them. As in, "Take these four guys and go dig a hole." The last few years at the paper mill, they referred to me as a coordinator or a resource. 1984 was about the time I worked on a team that installed a new computerized control system in our process. That was my first experience with computer technology, and they said I had a talent for it. They sent me to Honeywell in Phoenix, Arizona for a week of training, and then I came back and trained the other operators. After the mill closed in 1990, I had no further dealings with computers until my daughter lured me into PCs in 2000.
1984
Guess what I found......the Acer user's manual!
Well, there you go! It makes sense for the manufacturer to forego printed manuals; digital documentation can be updated much more quickly than a printed product. But they shouldn't hide it like Acer did with your box. There should have been a giant icon on your desktop titled "Read Me First!" which would have saved a lot of time and grief.
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I've seen a squiggly red line under words that Blogger thinks I've misspelled, and most of the time they were correct in pointing out my errors although I think their vocabulary is limited. I'm not sure if any of the editing features are browser dependent; it seems possible.
Outlook is still a Microsoft product, if Google is to be believed. I have two email accounts and they use different clients; they both work well enough but I'm not fussy. I still like the old school, monospace type fonts, like Courier, which remind me of a typewriter. One of my old computers had a dandy little program that sounded like a mechanical typewriter when you entered text, and a little "ding" sounded whenever you did a carriage return. Pointless, but fun to listen to, like you were clacking away in the bullpen of the Daily Planet.
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Short bios don't appeal to me, but Uncle Ken's suggestion of a particular year sounds interesting, and 1984 was a very good year.
That was the year I rode out to Missoula, Montana for an annual BMW motorcycle rally. A nice ride, but US Highway 2 got to be very dull, a straight line facing the afternoon sun, until the mountains slowly came into view. I don't recall the exact route, but there was a jog south to reach Missoula. Since I failed to tweak the carbs for the increased altitude the bike ran like a pig for a while as I crossed the great divide, but later it was okay although top speed dropped to around 80, which was more than good enough for those mountain roads.
Met a local cutie, too, so I extended my trip a few days after the rally. Later that summer I popped for airfare so she could come to Chicago for week or so. Good times. Since she was only 19, a bartender friend of mine offered her ID to use so we could hit a few nightspots. The ID picture looked close enough but she was never asked for any ID, at any time; it was the thought that counted. I've never heard of a bartender offering her ID to use, but those were different times.
A big highlight of the trip was seeing George Carlin at the Park West. Probably because she was a cutie we were seated very close to the stage, maybe twenty feet. If I was by myself I would've been stuck way in the back, I'm sure.
But all good things come to end. She returned to Montana, we phoned and wrote each other for a few months afterwards, but then things just petered out. Last I heard she got married, had a kid (not necessarily in that order) and was living in Orange County, CA. I may have been a forgotten diversion, by my memories of the Mountain Girl still endure. Indeed, a very good year.
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As I was reviewing Hindu deities to keep up with you guys, I was reminded of Ganesha, the god with the elephant's head, who was a staple on The Simpsons. One neat thing about Ganesha is that he is "widely revered as the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and sciences and the deva of intellect and wisdom" which seems oddly appropriate for the Institute.
who makes yellow beer?
That red underline thing is for words that blogger thinks are misspelled. If you click on that abc thing with the checkmark at the far right of the row with the bold, italics, etc on it and then put the cursor over the word and click on it, (left I think. I am not sure because some time ago I was having trouble with my mouse and I found somewhere in control panel where I could reverse my clicks and for some reason that solved the problem, and I've just left it like that. Well even before that I was never sure which click to do, so I tried one way and if that didn't give me what I wanted I tried the other way.) it will give you some suggestions for the correct spelling.
Is Outlook Google? It used to be Microsoft, well who knows in these days where most of the yellow beers are owned by some country in South Africa, or wait I think somebody bought them, so maybe somebody else owns them. I was looking up that awful Milwaukee's Best (actually all yellow beers taste alike to me, maybe it's just the can Milwaukee's Best comes in that I don't like. Everybody knows that the looks of the can can make the yellow beer better or worse) and it's owned by Millers, which is owned by SABMiller which is the South African company, but I think that is owned by inBev which is Belgian and I think owns all the yellow beers in America. But it was a long grueling google trek so maybe I am wrong.
It's hard to know anymore now that whippersnappers are running the world what is going on, Now that I think about it, I don't think any of us has ever run anything, in the sense of being the boss. I could be wrong here because I don't know the full biographies of either of the dawgs. Might be interesting if we all wrote short bios giving the years things happened and comparing what we were all doing at that time. Or maybe we could just pick a year, say 1984, and we could write what we were doing then. Well just a thought.
I think it was the fall of 1968 when I shaved and got a haircut and started waiting tables at the Wigwam on Sixth Street in Champaign. I soon rose to bartender, and one snowy night we had hired a new cook and the owner, Tom, was leaving around five and would be back for closing. "Watch the place," he told me. Sure thing Boss. A little later one of the waitresses came down and said the cook wanted a beer, well what the hell? Then he wanted another, and another after that, and then the food orders started fucking up and I told the waitresses no more beer for him, and then he came down to the bar, and it wasn't like he was a big guy, but he was old, he was like thirty-five and I was just twenty-one, technically an adult, but not really, and he was drunk and there could be trouble and so I just gave him another one and by the time Tom came back he was passed out in the kitchen. Tom gave me the stink eye and I shrugged, and that was the end of my career in management.
Is Outlook Google? It used to be Microsoft, well who knows in these days where most of the yellow beers are owned by some country in South Africa, or wait I think somebody bought them, so maybe somebody else owns them. I was looking up that awful Milwaukee's Best (actually all yellow beers taste alike to me, maybe it's just the can Milwaukee's Best comes in that I don't like. Everybody knows that the looks of the can can make the yellow beer better or worse) and it's owned by Millers, which is owned by SABMiller which is the South African company, but I think that is owned by inBev which is Belgian and I think owns all the yellow beers in America. But it was a long grueling google trek so maybe I am wrong.
It's hard to know anymore now that whippersnappers are running the world what is going on, Now that I think about it, I don't think any of us has ever run anything, in the sense of being the boss. I could be wrong here because I don't know the full biographies of either of the dawgs. Might be interesting if we all wrote short bios giving the years things happened and comparing what we were all doing at that time. Or maybe we could just pick a year, say 1984, and we could write what we were doing then. Well just a thought.
I think it was the fall of 1968 when I shaved and got a haircut and started waiting tables at the Wigwam on Sixth Street in Champaign. I soon rose to bartender, and one snowy night we had hired a new cook and the owner, Tom, was leaving around five and would be back for closing. "Watch the place," he told me. Sure thing Boss. A little later one of the waitresses came down and said the cook wanted a beer, well what the hell? Then he wanted another, and another after that, and then the food orders started fucking up and I told the waitresses no more beer for him, and then he came down to the bar, and it wasn't like he was a big guy, but he was old, he was like thirty-five and I was just twenty-one, technically an adult, but not really, and he was drunk and there could be trouble and so I just gave him another one and by the time Tom came back he was passed out in the kitchen. Tom gave me the stink eye and I shrugged, and that was the end of my career in management.
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Eureka!
Guess what I found......the Acer user's manual! I was clicking on some unfamiliar icons just to see what they do and I stumbled on this user's manual. I said in the beginning that they should have provided a user's manual with this thing, and it turns out that they did. Silly me, I was looking for a paper manual in the box with the other equipment. Also, I have ordered the book "Windows 10 for Dummies" from Amazon. I first tried to find it at our local bookstore, but it turns out they went out of business over five years ago and another much smaller store has since taken their place. They didn't have the book in stock and offered to order it for me, but I can do that myself. I told Diane to take a break while I took some time to learn this system. Poor girl, I must have worn her to a frazzle by now.
Thanks for telling me about that insert/overstrike feature, I didn't know it existed. Maybe I should have taken a class or something when I first started using computers back in 2000, but who's got time for that? My daughter gave me some pointers to start me out, and I have been picking up bits and pieces whenever I needed them ever since. Now, with people like Cortana and Diane on my side, I might become proficient at this before I log out and go to that big cyberspace in the sky.
I think that red underlining thing is a Google problem. I have recently encountered it on my g-mail account, which I have been using until I can get Outlook to work, and that is also a Google product. Maybe I should just ignore it because it seems to go away when I publish my post or send my e-mail. I'm surprised, though that you guys haven't experienced it. Who knows what evil lurks in the inner sanctum of Windows 10?
I do see what you mean about your rambling anecdote, but it was a good story anyway. I enjoy a little comic relief when I am struggling with demons like I have been lately.
Thanks for telling me about that insert/overstrike feature, I didn't know it existed. Maybe I should have taken a class or something when I first started using computers back in 2000, but who's got time for that? My daughter gave me some pointers to start me out, and I have been picking up bits and pieces whenever I needed them ever since. Now, with people like Cortana and Diane on my side, I might become proficient at this before I log out and go to that big cyberspace in the sky.
I think that red underlining thing is a Google problem. I have recently encountered it on my g-mail account, which I have been using until I can get Outlook to work, and that is also a Google product. Maybe I should just ignore it because it seems to go away when I publish my post or send my e-mail. I'm surprised, though that you guys haven't experienced it. Who knows what evil lurks in the inner sanctum of Windows 10?
I do see what you mean about your rambling anecdote, but it was a good story anyway. I enjoy a little comic relief when I am struggling with demons like I have been lately.
see what I mean?
Siva is indeed a squeeze of Kali, hard to say if she is the main one because they all seem to be squeezing each other, and most of them seem to be bi, or maybe it is that they change sexes from time to time. According to wiki Siva enjoys the dancing feet and Kali is actually the destroyer of all things evil, a fact which I dropped in order to make my narrative more pointed,
I don't know about the red underlining. Does that take place when you are typing into the blog or does it occur in all your typing? The default mode on typing is insert, but sometimes you hit a key or maybe displease Kali and then you are in overstrike mode in which case you can just hit the insert key to go back to normal.
Probably it is the seething outrage of good liberals like myself whenever Dump appears on tv or computer or newspaper which is always, that is causing the uncold winter. I have several times been tempted to turn on the air conditioning since November.
The main purpose of a new OS is not to improve things, it is to make you do things in a certain way that defies logic so that you can't think it through yourself and then once you are in that helpless state it tries to sell you stuff, particularly printer ink.
Rambling and long-winded eh? I used to refer to them as long, meandering, and pointless anecdote The pointlessness is the payoff. Somehow you have hooked the listener into, well listening and they are thinking that they have listened this long they can endure a few sentences more to hear the point. Of course it's always more than a few sentences away and when the ending comes it is, to quote the poet, not with a bang but a whimper; See what I mean? is a nice tagline at that point, and if the listener says "No!" you can say let me put this another way and then you are off into meandering again. See what I mean?
I don't know about the red underlining. Does that take place when you are typing into the blog or does it occur in all your typing? The default mode on typing is insert, but sometimes you hit a key or maybe displease Kali and then you are in overstrike mode in which case you can just hit the insert key to go back to normal.
Probably it is the seething outrage of good liberals like myself whenever Dump appears on tv or computer or newspaper which is always, that is causing the uncold winter. I have several times been tempted to turn on the air conditioning since November.
The main purpose of a new OS is not to improve things, it is to make you do things in a certain way that defies logic so that you can't think it through yourself and then once you are in that helpless state it tries to sell you stuff, particularly printer ink.
Rambling and long-winded eh? I used to refer to them as long, meandering, and pointless anecdote The pointlessness is the payoff. Somehow you have hooked the listener into, well listening and they are thinking that they have listened this long they can endure a few sentences more to hear the point. Of course it's always more than a few sentences away and when the ending comes it is, to quote the poet, not with a bang but a whimper; See what I mean? is a nice tagline at that point, and if the listener says "No!" you can say let me put this another way and then you are off into meandering again. See what I mean?
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Thinking Like a Machine
I seem to remember that Kali is Siva's main squeeze, so I doubt it is his head that she is stomping on. It's probably a demon because, among other things, Kali is known as the destroyer of demons. Be that as it may, Uncle Ken really outdid himself with his last post. It was a work of art. Anyway, Diane isn't anything like Kali, she's really nice.
It occurred to me this morning that I might have better luck talking to Microsoft's Virtual Assistant if I started thinking and talking like a machine. I noticed in Diane's last e-mail that, when she referred to our case number, she prefixed it with "SRX" and suffixed it with "ID". I occurred to me that those letters might be computer code for "case number" so, instead of calling it "case number 1375145764", I called it "SRX1375145764ID, and the Virtual Assistant bought it. She told me that I should make sure that I have the current version of Windows 10 and, if I didn't, to download the latest upgrade. I found this icon that said "Windows 10 Upgrade" and, sure enough, there was one waiting for me to upload. I was in the process of doing this when Diane called me on the phone. I told her what I was doing, she said that it was a good idea, and asked me to let her know how it turned out. Well, the upload failed due to "error code 0x80072ee7". I went back to Virtual Assistant and told her what happened. (I assume that Virtual Assistant is female because there is a female looking drawing above her title.) Anyway, V.A. gave me a half dozen answers, none of which I understood. I told Diane about it by e-mail, so we'll see what she has to say about it. During our phone conversation today, I mentioned to Diane that I was considering buying the book "Windows 10 for Dummies", and she said that would be a good book for me. I really believe that she is taking a personal interest in my case. She must be the kind of person who likes a challenge.
I talked to my daughter on the phone today. She also has recently aquired Windows 10 and she really hates it. She is coming to visit us this Saturday, so I suppose we will have a lot to talk about. My daughter is the one who first got me interested in computers back in 2000, you know.
I sent some feedback to Blogger about that red underlining problem I've been having, but they haven't responded yet. Are you guys also having that problem, or is it just me? I noticed tonight that, when that happens, my curser also starts acting funny. When I insert a letter into a word that I have already typed, it doesn't make a space for itself, it displaces the next letter instead, and I end up having to retype the whole sentence. I had that problem on a different site some years ago, and I found that, if I leave the site and come back to it, the problem goes away. This has happened to me several times tonight, and I found that I don't have to leave the site, just post my blog and then click back onto it.
Say what you want about Trump, at least he brought our global warming back. We experienced two record breaking cold winters in a row right after Obama was elected the first time, and it only got better after the congress went Republican. Now, with Trump, we are experiencing a record breaking warm winter. Coincidence? I think not!
It occurred to me this morning that I might have better luck talking to Microsoft's Virtual Assistant if I started thinking and talking like a machine. I noticed in Diane's last e-mail that, when she referred to our case number, she prefixed it with "SRX" and suffixed it with "ID". I occurred to me that those letters might be computer code for "case number" so, instead of calling it "case number 1375145764", I called it "SRX1375145764ID, and the Virtual Assistant bought it. She told me that I should make sure that I have the current version of Windows 10 and, if I didn't, to download the latest upgrade. I found this icon that said "Windows 10 Upgrade" and, sure enough, there was one waiting for me to upload. I was in the process of doing this when Diane called me on the phone. I told her what I was doing, she said that it was a good idea, and asked me to let her know how it turned out. Well, the upload failed due to "error code 0x80072ee7". I went back to Virtual Assistant and told her what happened. (I assume that Virtual Assistant is female because there is a female looking drawing above her title.) Anyway, V.A. gave me a half dozen answers, none of which I understood. I told Diane about it by e-mail, so we'll see what she has to say about it. During our phone conversation today, I mentioned to Diane that I was considering buying the book "Windows 10 for Dummies", and she said that would be a good book for me. I really believe that she is taking a personal interest in my case. She must be the kind of person who likes a challenge.
I talked to my daughter on the phone today. She also has recently aquired Windows 10 and she really hates it. She is coming to visit us this Saturday, so I suppose we will have a lot to talk about. My daughter is the one who first got me interested in computers back in 2000, you know.
I sent some feedback to Blogger about that red underlining problem I've been having, but they haven't responded yet. Are you guys also having that problem, or is it just me? I noticed tonight that, when that happens, my curser also starts acting funny. When I insert a letter into a word that I have already typed, it doesn't make a space for itself, it displaces the next letter instead, and I end up having to retype the whole sentence. I had that problem on a different site some years ago, and I found that, if I leave the site and come back to it, the problem goes away. This has happened to me several times tonight, and I found that I don't have to leave the site, just post my blog and then click back onto it.
Say what you want about Trump, at least he brought our global warming back. We experienced two record breaking cold winters in a row right after Obama was elected the first time, and it only got better after the congress went Republican. Now, with Trump, we are experiencing a record breaking warm winter. Coincidence? I think not!
Scarred for life
The continuing tale of the Windows 10 installation is fascinating but is sending up red flags. Isn't this OS supposed to be an improvement? It wouldn't surprise me if the hypothetical wife gives the hapless Mr. Beagles the stink-eye, asking, "So who is this Diane that keeps calling?"
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While browsing the many articles that caught my eye recently, this one line stood out: Rambling and long-winded anecdotes could be an early sign of Alzheimer’s disease... I'll have to keep that in mind at the next seminar lest I give myself away; I do have a tendency to ramble on at length, as Uncle Ken can attest but I can always blame it on the Guinness and other fine drinkables that I enjoy.
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Here we are, one month into the new regime, and history is constantly being made. According to Gallup, after only thirty days in office Trump has a presidential approval rating of 40%. That must be some kind of new record.
There is irony in the fact that Trump's supporters are among the first to feel the effects of his policies. Ranchers and farmers used to have a great market in Mexico, selling beef and corn, but that is now in jeopardy with Brazil and Argentina being new sources for Mexico's needs. The great and grandiose businessman has forgotten that you don't piss off your best customers.
And wasn't ISIS supposed to have been destroyed in the first thirty days? It will be the media's fault, believe you me.
It's too bad that SCROTUS doesn't realize that an adversarial relationship with the media is part of the deal and he forgets all the heat that Obama frequently encountered. Maybe he is learning and his sycophants can spoon feed him information until he can take big bites
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I'm not alone in having my mind clouded by the existence of Trump & Co., but it's something that can't be ignored, like a scab that you can't help but pick at. And it's going to leave an ugly scar.
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While browsing the many articles that caught my eye recently, this one line stood out: Rambling and long-winded anecdotes could be an early sign of Alzheimer’s disease... I'll have to keep that in mind at the next seminar lest I give myself away; I do have a tendency to ramble on at length, as Uncle Ken can attest but I can always blame it on the Guinness and other fine drinkables that I enjoy.
-----
Here we are, one month into the new regime, and history is constantly being made. According to Gallup, after only thirty days in office Trump has a presidential approval rating of 40%. That must be some kind of new record.
There is irony in the fact that Trump's supporters are among the first to feel the effects of his policies. Ranchers and farmers used to have a great market in Mexico, selling beef and corn, but that is now in jeopardy with Brazil and Argentina being new sources for Mexico's needs. The great and grandiose businessman has forgotten that you don't piss off your best customers.
And wasn't ISIS supposed to have been destroyed in the first thirty days? It will be the media's fault, believe you me.
It's too bad that SCROTUS doesn't realize that an adversarial relationship with the media is part of the deal and he forgets all the heat that Obama frequently encountered. Maybe he is learning and his sycophants can spoon feed him information until he can take big bites
-----
I'm not alone in having my mind clouded by the existence of Trump & Co., but it's something that can't be ignored, like a scab that you can't help but pick at. And it's going to leave an ugly scar.
the help desk
Diane huh? Consider this. D is the fourth letter of the alphabet and E is the fifth. If we add them together we get nine. If we take the N and rotate it ninety degrees clockwise we get a two. If we add that to nine we get eleven. K is the eleventh letter in the alaphabet. E is one past D, so that gives us twelve, and L is the twelfth letter of the alphabet. That gives us KIANL. Move the L two back because of that N and remove it because we have used it twice now and we have KILA. Reverse the vowels because it is Tuesday a day whose name has the vowels in reverse alphabetical order and we get KALI: Goddess of Time, Creation, Destruction and Power.
Probably on the other side of the phone you can't see her, but does she sound anything like this?
armed with a sword and noose. Bearing the strange khatvanga (skull-topped staff ), decorated with a garland of skulls, clad in a tiger's skin, very appalling owing to her emaciated flesh, with gaping mouth, fearful with her tongue lolling out, having deep reddish eyes, filling the regions of the sky with her roars,
She leaves the call, when the freeholder is away which is to be answered as soon as possible, and when the poor fool attempts to respond, he is blocked by Raul her roboslave, or maybe her three-headed dog, I forget which, who toys with him and drops his call. The sap retires to his smoking lounge, gets her email, responds and waits for the saga to continue.
Who can doubt that the saga will end with the sap in his skivvies stalking the sacred deer on a snowy night and then the sky filling with roars? And then her dancing feet across his prostrate body.
She is kind of hot though.
Monday, February 20, 2017
In Search of Diane
Diane from Microsoft called me on the phone today, but I wasn't home. My hypothetical wife told her when I was expected back, and Diane requested that I call her as soon as possible. The number she gave me was the regular Microsoft Support number where, of course, I got a recording. The recording said that I should go to the website instead, which is what they sometimes say when they are too busy to talk to me. Indeed, that's was where I met Diane in the first place. On the website I went through the whole procedure that you have to go through before you can talk to a real person. Each time, when they asked me to state the nature of my problem, I wrote, "I need to talk to Diane F. She is expectimg my call." This did not compute, so the machine told me to click on "Talk to a person", which I did. The person I got was not Diane, but some guy whose name was Raul, or something like that. The following conversation then ensued:
"This is Raul. How may I help you?"
First I told him the case number that Diane had assigned to me, which she said I should always do. Then Raul said, "Please state the nature of your problem so I can connect you to the correct person to help you."
Then I said, "I need to talk to Diane F. She is expecting my call."
Raul: "If you will tell me the nature of your problem I will connect you to the correct person."
Me: "I need to talk to Diane F. She is expecting my call."
Raul: "If you will say 'okay' I will connect you to the correct department."
Me: "Okay."
Raul: "I will now connect you to the correct department."
Me: "Thank you."
Raul: "Goodbye."
Me: "Goodbye?"
Then there was some clicking and some beeping, and Raul hung up on me.
At that point I gave up and went to my smoking lounge to ponder the meaning of all this.
This evening, I found a message from Diane in my gmail inbox. She told me that she had tried to call me and had left a message with my hypothetical wife. I replied with a shortened version of the story I just related. I told her that, if she would tell me when she was going to call next time, I would make sure that I was home........And so the saga continues!
"This is Raul. How may I help you?"
First I told him the case number that Diane had assigned to me, which she said I should always do. Then Raul said, "Please state the nature of your problem so I can connect you to the correct person to help you."
Then I said, "I need to talk to Diane F. She is expecting my call."
Raul: "If you will tell me the nature of your problem I will connect you to the correct person."
Me: "I need to talk to Diane F. She is expecting my call."
Raul: "If you will say 'okay' I will connect you to the correct department."
Me: "Okay."
Raul: "I will now connect you to the correct department."
Me: "Thank you."
Raul: "Goodbye."
Me: "Goodbye?"
Then there was some clicking and some beeping, and Raul hung up on me.
At that point I gave up and went to my smoking lounge to ponder the meaning of all this.
This evening, I found a message from Diane in my gmail inbox. She told me that she had tried to call me and had left a message with my hypothetical wife. I replied with a shortened version of the story I just related. I told her that, if she would tell me when she was going to call next time, I would make sure that I was home........And so the saga continues!
street fighting men
I have heard of that documentary, Kedi, also and of course it will go into my queue, I saw The Handmaiden last week, and it was a good one, South Korean, grim, and dare I say, erotic., This Saturday I saw Lincoln Lawyer which was okay, I guess, except that I had hoped for more sleazy lawyer stuff, when Hollywood has a hero they always make him too damn noble and goody two shoes.
About dogs and morality having an almost human like sense of morality, well of course, they are pack animals, altruism is in their genes. This is what I mean about morality preceding religion. Interesting that the researchers speak of dogs and not wolves. But despite the odd shapes they have been bred into, I expect they share most all their genes with wolves. One wonders how being raised by great apes with humongous brains effects the morality of the average dog in the street.
That Dump rally turned out to be so much meh. I have to admit I watched it. It was just a repeat of the shit storm press conference, but without the element of surprise and without reporters to insult to their faces there just wasn't much to stir the souls of men. I wonder if he has reached his limit. Outside of hurling feces I don't know where there is for him to go.
Old Dog appears to be referencing some kind of violence between Trumpists and anti Trumpists, and I am surprised it has not happened, you'd think there would be roving gangs of the former bursting into Starbucks and smashing laptops and roving games of the latter breaking into Joe's Bait Shop and overturning cans of worms, but so far that war seems to be being fought in the pages of facebook. I wonder if facebook is acting like some kind of safety valve, and if that is a good thing.
Living a two streets from Trump Tower I see plenty of demonstrations, the cops block the bridges so all the action is on the other side of the river, easily viewed from my balcony. They rant and rave but generally they are well-behaved. When they get to marching they do tie up traffic, but hell traffic is always getting tied up, but the extend to the violence is a broken window or two.
Back in the day, demonstrations were nonviolent too, until I believe it was in the spring of 1968, maybe Madison Wisconsin, when cops were pelted with bottles and rocks, and after that it became standard fare at any big demonstration. It didn't seem right to me at the time. I thought our goal was like in civil rights to get the other side to overreact and then when the press saw our bloody heads they would say oh those awful cops and then they would end the war. I was aware that that last step was pretty sketchy, but it just seemed the way to go.
Fighting the cops never made sense. Maybe dope had something to do with it, we were always afraid of getting busted so they were the enemy. And there was that sixties vibe. I guess it was it's own version of bullgoose loony.
About dogs and morality having an almost human like sense of morality, well of course, they are pack animals, altruism is in their genes. This is what I mean about morality preceding religion. Interesting that the researchers speak of dogs and not wolves. But despite the odd shapes they have been bred into, I expect they share most all their genes with wolves. One wonders how being raised by great apes with humongous brains effects the morality of the average dog in the street.
That Dump rally turned out to be so much meh. I have to admit I watched it. It was just a repeat of the shit storm press conference, but without the element of surprise and without reporters to insult to their faces there just wasn't much to stir the souls of men. I wonder if he has reached his limit. Outside of hurling feces I don't know where there is for him to go.
Old Dog appears to be referencing some kind of violence between Trumpists and anti Trumpists, and I am surprised it has not happened, you'd think there would be roving gangs of the former bursting into Starbucks and smashing laptops and roving games of the latter breaking into Joe's Bait Shop and overturning cans of worms, but so far that war seems to be being fought in the pages of facebook. I wonder if facebook is acting like some kind of safety valve, and if that is a good thing.
Living a two streets from Trump Tower I see plenty of demonstrations, the cops block the bridges so all the action is on the other side of the river, easily viewed from my balcony. They rant and rave but generally they are well-behaved. When they get to marching they do tie up traffic, but hell traffic is always getting tied up, but the extend to the violence is a broken window or two.
Back in the day, demonstrations were nonviolent too, until I believe it was in the spring of 1968, maybe Madison Wisconsin, when cops were pelted with bottles and rocks, and after that it became standard fare at any big demonstration. It didn't seem right to me at the time. I thought our goal was like in civil rights to get the other side to overreact and then when the press saw our bloody heads they would say oh those awful cops and then they would end the war. I was aware that that last step was pretty sketchy, but it just seemed the way to go.
Fighting the cops never made sense. Maybe dope had something to do with it, we were always afraid of getting busted so they were the enemy. And there was that sixties vibe. I guess it was it's own version of bullgoose loony.
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Diane Seemed Nice
I haven't been paying much attention to Trump, too busy trying to learn Windows 10. I called support yesterday and spent over an hour on the phone with Diane F. I had been trying to access my defrag program and the procedure given to me by Cortana wasn't working. Diane is a real person, I know because I asked her. She was so knowledgeable and efficient that I suspected she might be a machine. I think she took it as a compliment.
Diane set us up in a "remote session". As near as I can tell, her machine did something like a Vulcan mind meld with my machine. She told me to keep my hands off the curser, which I did, and she took control. In addition to showing my how to access my defrag, she did a bunch of other stuff that was supposed to improve my computer's performance. I'll have to take her word for it because she was moving so fast that I couldn't follow her. I was exhausted by the end of the session, just from watching her do all that stuff.
Diane was also supposed to fix my Outlook e-mail program, which wasn't communicating with my Google g-mail account, but we both forgot about it. The next day, Oulook was in even worse shape, now showing only a blank screen. I feard that it was my fault. You see, I was suffering from nicotine withdrawl as well as exhaustion, and Diane said I could go do something else while she finished up. I came back later and, assuming she was finished, shut down my computer. When I saw that Outlook had gotten worse, I thought I had shut down while Diane was still working, but that turned out not to be the case. She sent me an e-mail the next day summarizing what we had accomplished, and asked if I had any further questions. I told her about the situation with Outlook, and she confessed that she had forgotten it. I'm so glad that it wasn't my fault! I replied to her message and asked her what I should do now. Watch this space for further developments.
Diane set us up in a "remote session". As near as I can tell, her machine did something like a Vulcan mind meld with my machine. She told me to keep my hands off the curser, which I did, and she took control. In addition to showing my how to access my defrag, she did a bunch of other stuff that was supposed to improve my computer's performance. I'll have to take her word for it because she was moving so fast that I couldn't follow her. I was exhausted by the end of the session, just from watching her do all that stuff.
Diane was also supposed to fix my Outlook e-mail program, which wasn't communicating with my Google g-mail account, but we both forgot about it. The next day, Oulook was in even worse shape, now showing only a blank screen. I feard that it was my fault. You see, I was suffering from nicotine withdrawl as well as exhaustion, and Diane said I could go do something else while she finished up. I came back later and, assuming she was finished, shut down my computer. When I saw that Outlook had gotten worse, I thought I had shut down while Diane was still working, but that turned out not to be the case. She sent me an e-mail the next day summarizing what we had accomplished, and asked if I had any further questions. I told her about the situation with Outlook, and she confessed that she had forgotten it. I'm so glad that it wasn't my fault! I replied to her message and asked her what I should do now. Watch this space for further developments.
Friday, February 17, 2017
Enjoy the ride
Smoke imparting an electrical charge to particles sounds like hokum to me, but the nano-particles in smoke could be attracted to any electrical fields in the computer. Cigarette smoke isn't the only culprit; if you cook and fry food, bacon for instance, all kinds of stuff is wafting through the air, ready to be sucked up by the fans in the computer. The sticky film of many types of smoke allow other dust particles to adhere more easily. It's those damn fans; unless there are filtration systems installed there will be crap inside the box. But I've blathered enough about this, so we can let the topic die, shall we? Mr. Beagles has a box that's up and running, and I need to know nothng more.
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I enjoy listening to folks with foreign accents talk. There are certain rhythms from their native tongues that can give their spoken English a musical quality, but there are limits.
I remember this drill sergeant at Ft. Polk who was from Puerto Rico. His accent wasn't bad but he also had some kind of speech impediment, like his tongue was glued to the roof of his mouth. The first time he led us in PT and started barking orders we all stood around in confusion, not knowing what the hell he said or meant. It took us quite a few days to figure out what he was saying; the many extra sets of pushups helped motivate us. Towards the end of the training cycle we all understood him perfectly, but his speech never changed; we did.
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Although I seldom go out to the movies I'm always reading the reviews, often at rogerebert.com. One recent film caught my eye because it deals with Uncle Ken's critters of choice: cats. The film is Kedi, a documentary about the teeming street cat population in Istanbul. It received four stars, so I might even watch it myself eventually, although I'm not much of a cat person.
To keep things evenly balanced, I also read this:
Researchers at Kyoto University's department of psychology in Japan have worked out that dogs - as well as some species of monkey - have an almost human-like sense of morality.
I need not say more.
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Here's another acronym for #45: BLOTUS (Biggest Liar Of The United States).
Tomorrow's Florida rally is being billed as a campaign, and not political, rally in anticipation of 2020. It's not a stretch to call it premature, is it? Anyhow, the folks in the so-called Resistance are urging a boycott; they think it's a setup and trap by Bannon to make Trump's opposition look bad.
Four weeks into the new regime and the handbasket to hell is gaining momentum.
all dump all the time
From the mid sixties to the mid eighties I had no truck with tv. People would offer me their old tvs and I would decline because I did not want to rot my mind. How quaint that thought is today in the age of the internet. At any rate I did accept one in the mid eighties. All the time I had been without I had been seeing these capsule accounts in the newspapers, This week in the soaps. Wow, what was going out there in Genoa City?
Now that I had a tv I would find out. But there were so many of them. I would have to spend all morning and afternoon glued to the tube, so I picked one that ran around lunchtime and that would be the only one I would watch and I have been faithful to that to this day.
So yesterday I was preparing my lunch, watching CNN before the soap came on. Dump was going to announce his new nominee for secretary of labor, and maybe he would answer a few questions. Well you know I can't look away, so I began my meal with the camera on a podium in some White House room, the commentators whispering like they were at a golf tournament, but by the time my soap came on there was still no dump. So I tuned into the soap thinking I will look back during the commercial.
Victor was taking over Jack's company, Jill had some kind of heart attack, Lauren couldn't keep her hands off the Italian stallion and was driving her little red sports car to the cheating part of town, and then boom BREAKING NEWS and Genoa City was wiped away by the yellow tornado.
So that whole prelude was just to let you know that regularly scheduled network programming was interrupted by the announcement of a secretary of labor.
But of course it was no mere announcement of a secretary of labor, it was a tirade followed by a bear baiting of the press. My meal was eaten, the lazy boy was inviting me over for my post lunch nap and still it went on. I finally succumbed to the charms of the chair with dump still ranting, and ranting still when I awoke.
It was all the usual stuff, just more of it. There was a time when dump could get notice by being outrageous, but that has become ho hum, so now he has to be outrageous at length. One takeaway, right at the beginning he announced that he had the highest electoral vote since Reagan. When a reporter said that there had been four or five higher margins since then, dump said something like well, it was something he heard. But he gave it up, and went on to something else. He didn't claim that it was true because millions of people said it was and that the lying press was well, lying about it.
It was a rare bow to reality, but it was a flash in the pan, and he just went back to the usual crapola, and when he was finally done the chaps at CNN went on and on about it, until i left to have a meal with my nephew and his girlfriend and instead of reminiscing about times gone by we went on and on about dump.
Now that I had a tv I would find out. But there were so many of them. I would have to spend all morning and afternoon glued to the tube, so I picked one that ran around lunchtime and that would be the only one I would watch and I have been faithful to that to this day.
So yesterday I was preparing my lunch, watching CNN before the soap came on. Dump was going to announce his new nominee for secretary of labor, and maybe he would answer a few questions. Well you know I can't look away, so I began my meal with the camera on a podium in some White House room, the commentators whispering like they were at a golf tournament, but by the time my soap came on there was still no dump. So I tuned into the soap thinking I will look back during the commercial.
Victor was taking over Jack's company, Jill had some kind of heart attack, Lauren couldn't keep her hands off the Italian stallion and was driving her little red sports car to the cheating part of town, and then boom BREAKING NEWS and Genoa City was wiped away by the yellow tornado.
So that whole prelude was just to let you know that regularly scheduled network programming was interrupted by the announcement of a secretary of labor.
But of course it was no mere announcement of a secretary of labor, it was a tirade followed by a bear baiting of the press. My meal was eaten, the lazy boy was inviting me over for my post lunch nap and still it went on. I finally succumbed to the charms of the chair with dump still ranting, and ranting still when I awoke.
It was all the usual stuff, just more of it. There was a time when dump could get notice by being outrageous, but that has become ho hum, so now he has to be outrageous at length. One takeaway, right at the beginning he announced that he had the highest electoral vote since Reagan. When a reporter said that there had been four or five higher margins since then, dump said something like well, it was something he heard. But he gave it up, and went on to something else. He didn't claim that it was true because millions of people said it was and that the lying press was well, lying about it.
It was a rare bow to reality, but it was a flash in the pan, and he just went back to the usual crapola, and when he was finally done the chaps at CNN went on and on about it, until i left to have a meal with my nephew and his girlfriend and instead of reminiscing about times gone by we went on and on about dump.
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Getting to Know Cortana
I don't think that Cortana will be joining us at the Institute because, as near as I can tell, Cortana is not a real person. What they did is combine their "help" program with an internet search program and named it "Cortana". I could indeed talk to her if I had a microphone, which I don't, or a webcam either. That's okay, though, because I can type my question into her box. Yesterday her box said "Ask me anything", and today it says "How can I help you?", but it works the same way. Sometimes she just gives me the answer, and sometimes she sends me on an internet search.
On one of those searches I came across some of those You Tube tutorials that Old Dog mentioned. I clicked on one of them and, to my surprise, the narrator spoke with the same Asian Indian accent as the guy who helped me on the phone yesterday. I'm quite sure that it was Asian Indian because I got a follow up call today from another guy whose name was Siva (pronounced Shivah). I happen to know that Siva is the Hindu god of death and destruction, which made me a little nervous, but this guy seemed nice. I understand that Hindus sometimes name their kids after one of their many gods or goddesses, so all these people must be Asian Indians. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!) I must be getting used to the accent, because I understood the guy in the tutorial all right. I wonder, if I had a microphone and could talk personally to Cortuna, if she would have the same accent. Wouldn't surprise me a bit.
Funny thing about accents is that everybody thinks that they don't have one, just other people. I read somewhere that the Appalachian people say that outsiders speak with a "TV accent". How quaint!
I had my old one cleaned once, and the guy said it was full of dust. He said that was caused by smoking near the computer. The smoke inparts an elecrtrical charge to the dust particles, or something like that. I haven't smoked in the house since I bought this one in 2008, so I doubt that is the problem.
I don't want to sound paranoid, but I understand that Hitler used to hold rallies even after he assumed power. Make of that what you will.
I don't know why everything is underlined in red, I couldn't have misspelled all those words. Maybe it won't show up on the finished blog but, if it does, be advised that I didn't do it on purpose.
On one of those searches I came across some of those You Tube tutorials that Old Dog mentioned. I clicked on one of them and, to my surprise, the narrator spoke with the same Asian Indian accent as the guy who helped me on the phone yesterday. I'm quite sure that it was Asian Indian because I got a follow up call today from another guy whose name was Siva (pronounced Shivah). I happen to know that Siva is the Hindu god of death and destruction, which made me a little nervous, but this guy seemed nice. I understand that Hindus sometimes name their kids after one of their many gods or goddesses, so all these people must be Asian Indians. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!) I must be getting used to the accent, because I understood the guy in the tutorial all right. I wonder, if I had a microphone and could talk personally to Cortuna, if she would have the same accent. Wouldn't surprise me a bit.
Funny thing about accents is that everybody thinks that they don't have one, just other people. I read somewhere that the Appalachian people say that outsiders speak with a "TV accent". How quaint!
I had my old one cleaned once, and the guy said it was full of dust. He said that was caused by smoking near the computer. The smoke inparts an elecrtrical charge to the dust particles, or something like that. I haven't smoked in the house since I bought this one in 2008, so I doubt that is the problem.
I don't want to sound paranoid, but I understand that Hitler used to hold rallies even after he assumed power. Make of that what you will.
I don't know why everything is underlined in red, I couldn't have misspelled all those words. Maybe it won't show up on the finished blog but, if it does, be advised that I didn't do it on purpose.
Open the pod bay doors, HAL
I'm staring to feel like a laggard on the technological front. First, Uncle Ken gets a super-duper phone and then Mr. Beagles gets a computer that listens to, and answers, his questions.
I don't know if such a machine would work for me. I have a habit of "thinking out loud," or as is known in many circles as talking to myself when I'm trying to solve problems or working on something. There is often a lot of muttering and it would be unsettling for the computer to say, "What are talking about, Monkey Boy?"
There are some aspects of these modern marvels that give me pause, which is why I have a piece of tape over the laptop's built-in camera. I'm not hip to most security fixes and I've read that cameras can be hijacked. There are about a dozen WiFi networks available in my apartment's location, which mean that my network is available to many potentially bad actors, if they can crack the security. So far, so good, but you can't be too careful.
One thing I don't like about those digital assistants is that it's all cloud based, and Mr. Beagles may be surprised at the amount of his user data that will be stored on Microsoft's servers. I don't doubt the security of those servers, but somehow government agencies have access to a lot of data without needing warrants, or so I've read. But that's just another aspect of these times, where you can't determine real threats from imagined ones, and I've been giving it too much thought already.
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Mr. Beagles' description of his failing computers reminded me of something. Were the cases ever opened up to check for dust buildup? Years ago a buddy of mine, one of those serious geek types, told me that you should open up the box once a year to blow out the dust. Airflow can be blocked, heatsinks can be clogged, and the components overheat and shut down. Once they are cleaned up everything runs cool and works fine. Canned air is your friend but it can be messy, something to be done outdoors if possible or use a vacuum cleaner to suck up the cruft as it is being blasted off with the air. I'm not saying this is the answer but it is a possibility.
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How about those Russians? Jeez, they are playing the US media like a violin and somehow Trump's approval rating is rising (fake news?) Newsweek recently.published a piece about the communications spying done by a couple of unnamed US allies in Europe and some White House staff were, indeed, talking with the Russkies. The truth is out there, but we may never know.
Another unpresidented (see what I did there?) move by the Trump regime is the recently announced rally in Florida this weekend. Rally? For what? Have any previous sitting presidents done such a thing? Sure, there have been plenty of speeches and convocations, but a rally is new to me. Considering the likelihood of protestors and counter demonstrators it's as if Trump is baiting his opposition into doing something stupid, thus justifying possibly draconian executive orders. Given his temperament, martial law could be on the table. Not likely but not impossible either, considering the congressional lack of backbone. So far, only the courts, media, and comedians are standing tall, but the people still seem divided We'll see, but I wouldn't want to be within a hundred miles of that rally. Heads will be busted, believe you me.
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Getting into late February and still no snow to speak of, with temperatures forecast to be in the high 50s the next few days. 2017 is starting off to be a lot weirder than last year, and last year was truly weird. Maybe the aliens will finally arrive to sort things out. Or Jesus, take your pick.
CTA romance
SCROTUS is good, turning Dump's 'so-called,' phrase back on him, though a little blue, and all those caps, a little too loud. I am beginning to wonder however if he is going to skate on this thing. Everything is in the hands of the reps who, outside of a few hotheads, show no movement to investigate.
I'm sure empirical reality will do just fine. I used objective mainly to differentiate between subjective which holds something like, well we all have our own reality so who can say which is the true one?
Buttered toast with sugar and cinnamon was a staple of my youth. I haven't thought of it again until this morning when I read the tale of Old Dog and the Snappy hotties.
Of course now I'll have to trot out my tale of the young lady on the Brown Line. I'm sure you've heard it before, but I love to tell it and as both dawgs know once Uncle Ken's jaws get to flapping fat chance of stopping them.
It was a soft summer night. After a night of displaying my wit and my charm at the Ten Cat, I boarded the Brown Line at Irving and opened up my New Yorker for the ride home. At Addison the noise of giggling and jiving stirred me from my magazine as a group of young folks boarded and took the backward facing seats at the front of the car. Hmmph, I buried my nose deeper.
So deeply was it buried that I did not hear the young lady approach until she had slipped into the seat next to me, put her arm around me, and said brightly, "Hi, Sweetie." Well I never, young folks these days, making fun of a distinguished silver-haired gentleman like myself, even deeper went my nose into the magazine.
But as the train ran along, as Addison became Paulina became Southport, I came up for air, we got into chatting, she didn't like to ride backwards, she loved the Cubs, we had that lovable loser conversation that Cubs can now never have again. We parted amicably.
Later that week I visited my mother and told her the story. "She was drunk wasn't she?" she replied. At any rate I still had it maybe ten years ago.
We do have occasional young ladies dropping by the geezers corner of the Ten Cat from time to time, the latest being the punctuation maven, and while I am sure they find us charming none of them has found her way back among their busy schedules.
I'm sure empirical reality will do just fine. I used objective mainly to differentiate between subjective which holds something like, well we all have our own reality so who can say which is the true one?
Buttered toast with sugar and cinnamon was a staple of my youth. I haven't thought of it again until this morning when I read the tale of Old Dog and the Snappy hotties.
Of course now I'll have to trot out my tale of the young lady on the Brown Line. I'm sure you've heard it before, but I love to tell it and as both dawgs know once Uncle Ken's jaws get to flapping fat chance of stopping them.
It was a soft summer night. After a night of displaying my wit and my charm at the Ten Cat, I boarded the Brown Line at Irving and opened up my New Yorker for the ride home. At Addison the noise of giggling and jiving stirred me from my magazine as a group of young folks boarded and took the backward facing seats at the front of the car. Hmmph, I buried my nose deeper.
So deeply was it buried that I did not hear the young lady approach until she had slipped into the seat next to me, put her arm around me, and said brightly, "Hi, Sweetie." Well I never, young folks these days, making fun of a distinguished silver-haired gentleman like myself, even deeper went my nose into the magazine.
But as the train ran along, as Addison became Paulina became Southport, I came up for air, we got into chatting, she didn't like to ride backwards, she loved the Cubs, we had that lovable loser conversation that Cubs can now never have again. We parted amicably.
Later that week I visited my mother and told her the story. "She was drunk wasn't she?" she replied. At any rate I still had it maybe ten years ago.
We do have occasional young ladies dropping by the geezers corner of the Ten Cat from time to time, the latest being the punctuation maven, and while I am sure they find us charming none of them has found her way back among their busy schedules.
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
My Personal Assistant
I called Microsoft support today. This guy had a different accent than Jose, Asian Indian I think, and I could barely understand him, but he was patient with me and gave me some help. He told me there is no "help" program on Windows 10, but there is something better. I now have a personal assistant! Her name is Cortana, and she says that I can ask her anything. Not just computer stuff either, she can give me weather reports, traffic reports, and lots of other information on a wide range of subjects. After I get to know her better, I plan to invite her join us at the Institute, although she is probably much too busy to do that. She helped me change my screen resolution this evening, so now I can use normal size type. The Indian guy (he told me his name but I didn't get it) taught me how to set my clock without even going into the control panel. He said that everybody hates Windows 10 at first but, after I get used to it, I'll think it's wonderful.
I forgot to answer Old Dog's questions about my old computer yesterday. It was going down on me, first only occasionally, then more and more often. Sometimes my screen would lock up and I would have to shut it down myself and then start it back up again. My last computer did that for awhile, and then it just died and wouldn't start up anymore. I took it to a tech shop, and the guy told me that it was not worth fixing because it was so old, eight years. My second computer is the same age, so I figured it was only a matter of time and put it out of its misery.
I've still got lots to learn about my new one, but I now feel confident that, with Cortana's help, I can do anything if I set my mind to it.
Toast and a barking dog
As long as Mr. Beagles can get online he shouldn't have to dig too deeply to get all the information he needs to get his system up and running at a brisk pace. I did a quick Google search for "Windows 10 control panel" and a whole crapton of hits appeared, one of which will surely be suitable for his needs. Also, Acer has a YouTube channel, AcerAmericaService, that has plenty of video tutorials relating to many aspects of Windows 10. So, there 'ya go; at least it can get him started.
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Since this shit hit the fan, there have been no tweets from Dumbo. None at all. If that isn't suspicious I don't know what is.
Allay your suspicions, Uncle Ken. Early this morning (0630) I checked the Twitter feed of SCROTUS (so-called ruler of United States) and there were a few, some only minutes old. The leaks have him in a tizzy, as well as they should. The intelligence community is not on his side, and that is an issue that can cause problems for all of us further down the road. Pundits have been yapping about how the leaks are more dangerous to the nation than the information they reveal.
What is more interesting than the tweets themselves is the nature and amount of comments that follow them. Most are negative and terms like treason, impeachment, and prison are often mentioned. They may be worth a read, but make sure your tin foil hat is fitting securely.
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I discovered a bit of synchronicity recently, indicating that the discussions of the Institute are in tune with other writers. In an article titled The Madness of King Donald, the conservative writer Andrew Sullivan says this:
Most Fridays, from now on, I’ll be writing in this space about, among other things, the end of Western civilization, the collapse of the republic, and, yes, my beagles. (emphasis added)
Later he writes:
But all the traditional political fibbers nonetheless paid some deference to the truth — even as they were dodging it. They acknowledged a shared reality and bowed to it.
But he's talking about empirical reality, not objective reality. I had to dig a little to determine the differences between objective, empirical, and absolute realities but then my thoughts got muddled, like they are starting to split hairs. It seems to me that they are all valid, and can work together nicely. Otherwise it's like Christians arguing about whether or not wine should be given during the sacrament of holy communion while losing sight of the bigger picture. I will leave it to Uncle Ken to parse the differences and give the final word. Myself, I'm leaning towards empirical as my reality of choice, as if I had any choice in the matter. Certain aspects of reality continue to elude me.
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After the most recent seminar, I stopped at Snappie's, a local shrimp and fried fish joint for some catfish and hush puppies. As I waited for my bus, two young ladies, maybe in their twenties, approached while engaged in an animated discussion fueled, no doubt, by a few cocktails. One of them asked me if I've ever heard of putting cinnamon and sugar on buttered toast, not the topic of conversation I was expecting. Being wise to the ways of the world, I replied, "Of course, but the butter has to be at room temperature and the sugar and cinnamon should be mixed thoroughly before application to the buttered toast." I didn't expound on bread choices. They must have been impressed, because one of them, the shorter, chubbier, and cuter of the two, asked if she could give me a hug.
Always willing to comply in such circumstances, I agreed, and we hugged. After more than a suitable length of time I asked, "Aren't you glad I'm not Donald Trump?" The ensuing laughter broke the spell and we disengaged, just in time for my arriving bus. Smiles all around, and they proceeded to the nearby nightspot to continue their girl's night out in the big city.
The Old Dog is still barking.
a shining new conspiracy theory
I remember when Beagles would write about Dump being an agent of the big girl (Ah, the big girl, I haven't used that phrase since early in November. How much more serenely, and in a better direction to my thinking, the ship of state would be sailing now should things have gone differently. Also how infinitely more boring). Tut tut and good stuff my good man, don't be one of those silly conspiracy theorists, I would tell Beagles, the Occam answer to this situation is simple: Dump is a big fucking asshole.
I still stand by this, and I still don't trade in conspiracy theories, but my, my, my, don't we have a fine little conspiracy with Dump the cat's paw of the Russkies. All those Dump/Russian financial dealings, the refusal to show his income tax, all that communication between his staff and the Russkies, the Flynn call where he'd rather take the fall than reveal what he was talking about, Dump learning about it two weeks ago and doing nothing, the Russkies not retaliating when Obama sent some of their people out of the country, and Dump giving them the thumbs up afterwards. Wow.
I usually watch the murder channel before going to bed, but last night i thought let's see what's going on with this Flynn thing and holy shit, it just unfolded. A lot of this is still circumstantial, but I expect things will roll out as time rolls on. It does kind of go with my theory against conspiracy theories, in that they have so many moving parts that they seldom stick together. One wonders why the Russkies would couple themselves with the erratic Dump, but I expect he was a target of convenience for them and how much did they have to lose since we consider them the evil empire anyway?
As I recall Old Dog's theory, or the one he dug up, did mention some kind of transfer of Russian money, what were the other elements? Digging into the archives of the Institute it seemed to be more about the muslim ban and the Dump-Bannon-Miller-Priebus band taking over the country, I think.
How about this for another piece of the new Russkies taking over the US with Dumbo as Cat's Paw (rtotuwdacp) conspiracy theory? Since this shit hit the fan, there have been no tweets from Dumbo. None at all. If that isn't suspicious I don't know what is.
I still stand by this, and I still don't trade in conspiracy theories, but my, my, my, don't we have a fine little conspiracy with Dump the cat's paw of the Russkies. All those Dump/Russian financial dealings, the refusal to show his income tax, all that communication between his staff and the Russkies, the Flynn call where he'd rather take the fall than reveal what he was talking about, Dump learning about it two weeks ago and doing nothing, the Russkies not retaliating when Obama sent some of their people out of the country, and Dump giving them the thumbs up afterwards. Wow.
I usually watch the murder channel before going to bed, but last night i thought let's see what's going on with this Flynn thing and holy shit, it just unfolded. A lot of this is still circumstantial, but I expect things will roll out as time rolls on. It does kind of go with my theory against conspiracy theories, in that they have so many moving parts that they seldom stick together. One wonders why the Russkies would couple themselves with the erratic Dump, but I expect he was a target of convenience for them and how much did they have to lose since we consider them the evil empire anyway?
As I recall Old Dog's theory, or the one he dug up, did mention some kind of transfer of Russian money, what were the other elements? Digging into the archives of the Institute it seemed to be more about the muslim ban and the Dump-Bannon-Miller-Priebus band taking over the country, I think.
How about this for another piece of the new Russkies taking over the US with Dumbo as Cat's Paw (rtotuwdacp) conspiracy theory? Since this shit hit the fan, there have been no tweets from Dumbo. None at all. If that isn't suspicious I don't know what is.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Progress Report
The reason my font size is larger is that I changed it on this site because everything is smaller now and this was the only way I knew how to make it bigger. I seem to remember that there is a way to change the resolution, but I still can't find my control panel or any other programs. I can use the internet, and I found out how to put sites on my favorites list, which is a good start. I can access my email account by searching for it on the internet, but there should be a way to click on something right from my desktop display. I haven't discovered how to make a shortcut yet, right clicking doesn't do it. I can't find a "help" icon, so I'm going to the Microsoft site and see what I can find there. If that doesn't work I'll have to call Microsoft tech support like Jose told me to do.
I'm afraid that I won't be much company until I get this thing straightened out. I can't do this and hang out with you guys at the same time. Sorry.
Answering the distress call
I feel your pain, Mr. Beagles. The hinges for my laptop screen crapped out and now I can't close it properly, which means it stays open and I can't tuck it out of the way. Damn. But replacement hinges are pretty cheap so maybe I should do that; it doesn't look like a difficult fix.
Did the old machine up and die? You mentioned that it is so old that it isn't worth fixing any more and I'm wondering what kind of fixing was needed in the past. Hardware failures?
My experience with Windows 10 is very limited; it didn't look like a step forward to me. The interface and layout were too goofy and confusing, and I think they changed where system programs and utilities are located. I'm sure you'll figure it out if you're patient and take things slowly. Is the old box still functional? If so, you could go online and figure out the proper configuration for the new box. You may not need a second monitor if your TV has an HDMI input and one of the computers has an HDMI output. I don't know what gadgets you have available, but a cheap tablet device would be handy if you have home WiFi and can access the Cyber. My iPad has come in handy for troubleshooting problems but much cheaper alternatives are available and they are also great for reading e-books, if that's your thing.
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Pentamax? Never heard of it, unless you are referring to the Pentium, Uncle Ken. I recall a debacle with one of the early versions where the math functions got screwy and gave wrong results with certain calculations. Ah, those were the days!
Good keyboards are hard to find these days, a lot of them feel cheap and flimsy with not enough key travel. The old IBM units are still highly prized; you could smack the keys with vigor. I liked that, you had plenty of room to move your hands around and seldom hit the wrong key. Mice are the same way with the modern ones being a little lightweight for my tastes, but I don't miss that ball that needed cleaning.
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Mr. Beagles, if the old machine is still functional but you feel it is too slow and clunky you might consider installing Linux on it. You'll be amazed at how much faster it runs and there are plenty of great programs available which won't cost you a dime. I ran Linux on one of my old boxes and liked it a lot, once I figured out their way of doing things.
Did the old machine up and die? You mentioned that it is so old that it isn't worth fixing any more and I'm wondering what kind of fixing was needed in the past. Hardware failures?
My experience with Windows 10 is very limited; it didn't look like a step forward to me. The interface and layout were too goofy and confusing, and I think they changed where system programs and utilities are located. I'm sure you'll figure it out if you're patient and take things slowly. Is the old box still functional? If so, you could go online and figure out the proper configuration for the new box. You may not need a second monitor if your TV has an HDMI input and one of the computers has an HDMI output. I don't know what gadgets you have available, but a cheap tablet device would be handy if you have home WiFi and can access the Cyber. My iPad has come in handy for troubleshooting problems but much cheaper alternatives are available and they are also great for reading e-books, if that's your thing.
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Pentamax? Never heard of it, unless you are referring to the Pentium, Uncle Ken. I recall a debacle with one of the early versions where the math functions got screwy and gave wrong results with certain calculations. Ah, those were the days!
Good keyboards are hard to find these days, a lot of them feel cheap and flimsy with not enough key travel. The old IBM units are still highly prized; you could smack the keys with vigor. I liked that, you had plenty of room to move your hands around and seldom hit the wrong key. Mice are the same way with the modern ones being a little lightweight for my tastes, but I don't miss that ball that needed cleaning.
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Mr. Beagles, if the old machine is still functional but you feel it is too slow and clunky you might consider installing Linux on it. You'll be amazed at how much faster it runs and there are plenty of great programs available which won't cost you a dime. I ran Linux on one of my old boxes and liked it a lot, once I figured out their way of doing things.
new fangled crapola
Wow Beagles, it has even changed your font . I have managed to keep microsoft from hijacking my computer to Windows 10. For awhile there every time I turned my head around Windows 10 was loading. I finally just turned off automatic updates from Microsoft. I was warned that this would be courting disaster, but it's been about a year and nothing bad has happened yet.
My first computer, a Radio Shack TRS80, back in 1984, was good for playing games and programming. I first programmed in college in 1965, punched cards and Fortran. I didn't do well in the class but that was because I spent all my time with my beer drinking buddies. In 1978 when I decided I should probably do something besides tend bar the rest of my life and went to the local Junior College punched cards were gone and COBOL was in. There was also some Basic which was way cool and assembly which was such a pain in the ass that it was fun in a nerd way.
I have never been interested in computer games, but I loved programming on the TRS80. It had a gadget connected to the tv to turn it into a monitor and you connected it to cassette recorder to save the programs you wrote. There was a magazine which I subscribed to religiously. The attitude of the magazine was that the TRS80 would be the wave of the future. Mostly it was games that people wrote in Basic, hundreds of lines of code that you could type into your computer and save on cassette tape, but they never ran well because any little typo in a few hundred lines of code would kill it.
I got the TRS80 when my friend who had owned it before stepped up to the Commodore 64 which was so cool it even had a printer. There were several brands of toy computers around in that day, and then IBM came out with the PC Jr. It had DOS, but no hard drive. You booted it up with the DOS disk inside the drive, then removed it, and put in your say, Lotus 123, disk to do spreadsheets and them if you wanted to save that spreadsheet you had to take out the Lotus 123 disc and put in a data disc to save it on. But its version of Basic was super keen. I made up a baseball game and set the Cubs to playing the Cardinals in the world series and went out to lunch and when I came back it was over and I had four to seven box scores to show for it.
It had either an 86 or a 186 processor, then came the march of the 86s, 286, 386, 486, and then the 586 which they called the pentamax, and maybe a pentamax 2 or 3, and anymore they don't talk about chips. It used to be when I bought a new computer I would check out the chip, the internal memory, maybe the HZ, some kind of measure of speed, and the size of the hard drive, anymore I just get what is cheapest. I had a laptop before this one, but it just sat on the table like a desktop so where was the advantage? I think it was an HP as is my current one, an odd one where the cpu is slapped behind the screen, but I liked the keyboard and it was cheap.
I feel for you Beagles but I don't know if I can help you., I got one of those superphones maybe a month ago, and I can barely use it. Back in the day the computer sat there and waited for you to do stuff, anymore it is always trying to do stuff for you and it makes me nuts.
My first computer, a Radio Shack TRS80, back in 1984, was good for playing games and programming. I first programmed in college in 1965, punched cards and Fortran. I didn't do well in the class but that was because I spent all my time with my beer drinking buddies. In 1978 when I decided I should probably do something besides tend bar the rest of my life and went to the local Junior College punched cards were gone and COBOL was in. There was also some Basic which was way cool and assembly which was such a pain in the ass that it was fun in a nerd way.
I have never been interested in computer games, but I loved programming on the TRS80. It had a gadget connected to the tv to turn it into a monitor and you connected it to cassette recorder to save the programs you wrote. There was a magazine which I subscribed to religiously. The attitude of the magazine was that the TRS80 would be the wave of the future. Mostly it was games that people wrote in Basic, hundreds of lines of code that you could type into your computer and save on cassette tape, but they never ran well because any little typo in a few hundred lines of code would kill it.
I got the TRS80 when my friend who had owned it before stepped up to the Commodore 64 which was so cool it even had a printer. There were several brands of toy computers around in that day, and then IBM came out with the PC Jr. It had DOS, but no hard drive. You booted it up with the DOS disk inside the drive, then removed it, and put in your say, Lotus 123, disk to do spreadsheets and them if you wanted to save that spreadsheet you had to take out the Lotus 123 disc and put in a data disc to save it on. But its version of Basic was super keen. I made up a baseball game and set the Cubs to playing the Cardinals in the world series and went out to lunch and when I came back it was over and I had four to seven box scores to show for it.
It had either an 86 or a 186 processor, then came the march of the 86s, 286, 386, 486, and then the 586 which they called the pentamax, and maybe a pentamax 2 or 3, and anymore they don't talk about chips. It used to be when I bought a new computer I would check out the chip, the internal memory, maybe the HZ, some kind of measure of speed, and the size of the hard drive, anymore I just get what is cheapest. I had a laptop before this one, but it just sat on the table like a desktop so where was the advantage? I think it was an HP as is my current one, an odd one where the cpu is slapped behind the screen, but I liked the keyboard and it was cheap.
I feel for you Beagles but I don't know if I can help you., I got one of those superphones maybe a month ago, and I can barely use it. Back in the day the computer sat there and waited for you to do stuff, anymore it is always trying to do stuff for you and it makes me nuts.
Monday, February 13, 2017
Mayday! Mayday!
I bought a new computer over the weekend because my old one was giving me a lot of trouble and I decided it was time to pull the plug on it. It's over eight years old and I have been told that, when they get that old, they're not worth fixing anymore. The selection at Walmart was limited because those new fangled mobile units have crowded most of the regular equipment off the shelves. I ended up buying an Acer with a Windows 10 operating system. My last system was a Windows 7 so I have skipped a couple generations, and I'm having trouble figuring this one out.
I called Acer tech support and pressed "1" for English. I suppose you could say that Jose spoke English, but it was an unfamiliar dialect and I could barely understand him. He did give me some help and then told me to call Microsoft tech support for the rest, or go to their website. Tonight I found the Institute with some difficulty, so I thought I'd ask you guys about it before I try anything else. I can only do so much of this shit before I become frustrated and burn out for the night.
I think my email works, but I have lost my contacts list, so I'll have to wait until somebody contacts me to know for sure. I can't find my control panel, or any other programs, so I haven't even set my clock yet. Any tips you guys can give me will be appreciated. That's all for tonight, it's late and I want to check my email yet.
I called Acer tech support and pressed "1" for English. I suppose you could say that Jose spoke English, but it was an unfamiliar dialect and I could barely understand him. He did give me some help and then told me to call Microsoft tech support for the rest, or go to their website. Tonight I found the Institute with some difficulty, so I thought I'd ask you guys about it before I try anything else. I can only do so much of this shit before I become frustrated and burn out for the night.
I think my email works, but I have lost my contacts list, so I'll have to wait until somebody contacts me to know for sure. I can't find my control panel, or any other programs, so I haven't even set my clock yet. Any tips you guys can give me will be appreciated. That's all for tonight, it's late and I want to check my email yet.
The Great States of Taxes
The recent digressions into the ins and outs of epithets and name calling were inspired by the ire of Mr. Beagles regarding tobacco taxes, if memory serves. I did a little digging and all I could find was a federal excise tax increase in early 2009, from $.39 to $1.01 per pack of cigarettes. Is this correct and what was referred to?
Assuming so, Mr. Beagles also mentioned that Michigan "already had one of the highest cigarette taxes in the nation" and, at $2.00/pack, he may be correct but Illinois isn't far behind at $1.98/pack. But according to the figures I've found (2015),the average price for a pack of smokes in Michigan is $8.00 and the average price in Illinois is $11.50. Quite a difference, as we are also clobbered by county and city taxes. As a matter of fact, Chicago has the highest taxation for cigarettes in the nation, with the combined state and local taxes adding up to $6.16/pack. I think the city had a tax raise at the new year, maybe it was the county or state, but it's higher now. And yet we prevail, without any name calling (so far). The federal taxes are the least of all the taxes, as near as I can tell.
One of the standard rationales for raising tobacco taxes is to discourage smoking, and maybe it works, but as they keep raising taxes they end up generating less revenue because fewer tobacco products are being sold. Anti-smoking laws are becoming more Draconian, too. I think it's illegal to smoke in a city park or on public beaches in Chicago but I'm not sure if the law is rigorously enforced.
Going back to that increase in 2009, did it spring full blown from the mind of Obama during the honeymoon period or was it some legislation that was already in process before he took office? Doesn't matter much to me now, but I'm curious.
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I've been giving more thought to the top crust dilemma of the loaves of Mr. Beagles. He mentioned that he uses longer baking times, but that he puts the loaves in an oven that hasn't been preheated; that's surely a factor in the longer time. Also, I seem to recall something, from somewhere, about applying a wash of egg white or butter on the tops of the loaves before baking. An experiment with mini-loaves may be in order.
To go further off topic, I've found some interesting cooking channels on YouTube, and there's a dandy recipe if you ever feel like making your own Velveeta cheese. Good cornbread recipes, too.
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No point in speculating on the antics at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., as any staff changes or charges/investigations involving Russian influence will either happen quickly, or not at all.
Kind of odd to see the word "treason" mentioned so frequently and about so many people, though.
Assuming so, Mr. Beagles also mentioned that Michigan "already had one of the highest cigarette taxes in the nation" and, at $2.00/pack, he may be correct but Illinois isn't far behind at $1.98/pack. But according to the figures I've found (2015),the average price for a pack of smokes in Michigan is $8.00 and the average price in Illinois is $11.50. Quite a difference, as we are also clobbered by county and city taxes. As a matter of fact, Chicago has the highest taxation for cigarettes in the nation, with the combined state and local taxes adding up to $6.16/pack. I think the city had a tax raise at the new year, maybe it was the county or state, but it's higher now. And yet we prevail, without any name calling (so far). The federal taxes are the least of all the taxes, as near as I can tell.
One of the standard rationales for raising tobacco taxes is to discourage smoking, and maybe it works, but as they keep raising taxes they end up generating less revenue because fewer tobacco products are being sold. Anti-smoking laws are becoming more Draconian, too. I think it's illegal to smoke in a city park or on public beaches in Chicago but I'm not sure if the law is rigorously enforced.
Going back to that increase in 2009, did it spring full blown from the mind of Obama during the honeymoon period or was it some legislation that was already in process before he took office? Doesn't matter much to me now, but I'm curious.
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I've been giving more thought to the top crust dilemma of the loaves of Mr. Beagles. He mentioned that he uses longer baking times, but that he puts the loaves in an oven that hasn't been preheated; that's surely a factor in the longer time. Also, I seem to recall something, from somewhere, about applying a wash of egg white or butter on the tops of the loaves before baking. An experiment with mini-loaves may be in order.
To go further off topic, I've found some interesting cooking channels on YouTube, and there's a dandy recipe if you ever feel like making your own Velveeta cheese. Good cornbread recipes, too.
-----
No point in speculating on the antics at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., as any staff changes or charges/investigations involving Russian influence will either happen quickly, or not at all.
Kind of odd to see the word "treason" mentioned so frequently and about so many people, though.
is it alright to be talking about this?
There's a difference here, the names I have called Dump are like big fucking asshole, names that I could call anybody, and I don't call him a hillbilly or a cracker, which I think if black people were to call him that they would be accused of being racist. You say you that you didn't dislike Obama because he was black, but would you have called him Yo Mama if he was a white guy? I assume you chose Yo Mama because it rhymes with Obama, but you know it is the kind of phrase that Obama would never use. If you went into a bar where the KKK hangs our and Obama came on the tube and you told the guy on the next bar stool, "I call him 'Yo Mama,'" I expect that they would be lining up to buy you a beer.
When I graduated from grade school instead of going to Gage Park, I went to Tilden Tech, it was supposed to be some kind of superior technical school. It was also an all boy's school, and half the boys were black. Before this the only contact I has with black people was when the bus to downtown passed through a black neighborhood. I did indeed come across the phrase Yo Mama there, It was like the prefix for one of those jokes like Yo Mama is like a bowling ball, they roll her down the alley. Oh there were hundreds of them, it wasn't too much trouble to make up your own. And you could use the phrase by itself to say something like fuck you.
Now Old Dog tells me there is a difference between being Black and being African American. I didn't know that. The last time I had any dealings with colored people, we were still calling them Negroes.
We have four of the five names for black people here. I assume nigger came first and back in its day was not a particularly pejorative name. Negro was considered more polite. Then in our day colored came to be preferred, as labeling the drinking fountain that wasn't white only. I'm sure you've heard the joke about the white northern kid who came south and saw the colored drinking fountain, but then was disappointed to discover the water was just transparent like any other water. Then in those wonderful sixties we had black (and proud, say it loud). Since then we have added African American. I generally use black, but if I was in any kind of formal situation like a letter to the editor I think I would use African American.
Certainly nigger is a racial slur, negro probably also, colored would not be a slur, but it would be considered rather insensitive, maybe something you could get by with if you were an old white guy. I like to think I could still get by with black, but for more formal occasions I would use African American.
Well do white guys get to choose what to call black people? I don't know.
Old Dog makes a distinction between between black and African American, which (of course) I take exception to. I think the true distinction here is of class, with lower classes being black and upper classes being African American. There is a thing you hear about black kids who do well in school being accused by their classmates of acting White.
I don't think Obama was too cool and dispassionate for his own good. He won two elections didn't he? And despite tremendous resistance he got a lot of stuff through. If he had acted more black,in Old Dog's definition, he would be more like Jesse Jackson, and how far did Jesse ever get in national politics? The thing I most like about Obama was that when he spoke to you he spoke to you as if you were intelligent too. We won't see that like again anytime soon.
When I graduated from grade school instead of going to Gage Park, I went to Tilden Tech, it was supposed to be some kind of superior technical school. It was also an all boy's school, and half the boys were black. Before this the only contact I has with black people was when the bus to downtown passed through a black neighborhood. I did indeed come across the phrase Yo Mama there, It was like the prefix for one of those jokes like Yo Mama is like a bowling ball, they roll her down the alley. Oh there were hundreds of them, it wasn't too much trouble to make up your own. And you could use the phrase by itself to say something like fuck you.
Now Old Dog tells me there is a difference between being Black and being African American. I didn't know that. The last time I had any dealings with colored people, we were still calling them Negroes.
We have four of the five names for black people here. I assume nigger came first and back in its day was not a particularly pejorative name. Negro was considered more polite. Then in our day colored came to be preferred, as labeling the drinking fountain that wasn't white only. I'm sure you've heard the joke about the white northern kid who came south and saw the colored drinking fountain, but then was disappointed to discover the water was just transparent like any other water. Then in those wonderful sixties we had black (and proud, say it loud). Since then we have added African American. I generally use black, but if I was in any kind of formal situation like a letter to the editor I think I would use African American.
Certainly nigger is a racial slur, negro probably also, colored would not be a slur, but it would be considered rather insensitive, maybe something you could get by with if you were an old white guy. I like to think I could still get by with black, but for more formal occasions I would use African American.
Well do white guys get to choose what to call black people? I don't know.
Old Dog makes a distinction between between black and African American, which (of course) I take exception to. I think the true distinction here is of class, with lower classes being black and upper classes being African American. There is a thing you hear about black kids who do well in school being accused by their classmates of acting White.
I don't think Obama was too cool and dispassionate for his own good. He won two elections didn't he? And despite tremendous resistance he got a lot of stuff through. If he had acted more black,in Old Dog's definition, he would be more like Jesse Jackson, and how far did Jesse ever get in national politics? The thing I most like about Obama was that when he spoke to you he spoke to you as if you were intelligent too. We won't see that like again anytime soon.
Friday, February 10, 2017
Yo Momma
If you remember, the first time I mentioned my cute little pet name for Obama, I said that it was a stupid thing to do, but it made me feel better at the time. The point I was trying to make was that name calling is an act of frustration.Well, it can also be an act of provocation but, in this case, neither Obama nor any of his supporters were likely to hear of it, so I wasn't tying to provoke anyone. I was just, as they say, venting, which is what I think you guys and others have been doing with all your cute little nicknames for Trump. You don't like him, you didn't vote for him, but he's the president now, and there is nothing much that you can do about it. When he runs for a second term, you still won't vote for him, but he might win anyway. I suspect that makes you feel similar to the way I felt about Obama's presidency, and you are reacting in kind. Am I wrong?
I didn't dislike Obama because he was Black, there was nothing I liked about him, but his Blackness was an easy target, so I took my (cheap) shot. Now Old Dog tells me there is a difference between being Black and being African American. I didn't know that. The last time I had any dealings with colored people, we were still calling them Negroes. Maybe those guys don't even say "yo mamma" anymore, which would explain why Uncle Ken's first response to my story was "WTF?"
I hadn't heard of those shops that made cigarettes for you. Our local smoke shop sells all kinds of cigarettes and cigars off the shelf. They also sell tobacco by the pound, paper tubes to stuff the tobacco into, and the machines that stuff the tobacco into the tubes. There are several different models, most of them hand operated. After trying a few of them, I ended up buying the top-of-the line electric model. It costs over a hundred dollars, but you make that back on the first few cartons you produce, and the machine lasts for years. After paying for the machine, it costs me about 15 bucks to make a carton of cigarettes and, last I heard, a carton of store bought ones cost 50 or 60 dollars.
Michigan already had one of the highest cigarette taxes in the nation, but any tax they might have had on bulk tobacco was insignificant. Obama's bill increased the cigarette tax and also levied a tax on tobacco that almost doubled the price. A one pound bag went from $20 to almost $40. A few months later, some enterprising entrepreneur noticed that the tax increase was only on cigarette tobacco, not pipe tobacco. With the help of the nice lady at the smoke shop, I found a brand of "pipe tobacco" that I liked, and it sold for 20 bucks a pound. Now I know the difference between cigarette tobacco and pipe tobacco because I used to smoke a pipe, and I don't know how they can get away with calling this stuff pipe tobacco, but I'm glad that they can.
I guess the reason this tobacco tax bothered me so much was that it occurred early in Obama's presidency, a time that is commonly called the "honeymoon period". The other stuff that happened later was par for the course, but this one came as a surprise. Looking back on it, I shouldn't have been surprised. After all, that is what people do to each other on their honeymoon.
I didn't dislike Obama because he was Black, there was nothing I liked about him, but his Blackness was an easy target, so I took my (cheap) shot. Now Old Dog tells me there is a difference between being Black and being African American. I didn't know that. The last time I had any dealings with colored people, we were still calling them Negroes. Maybe those guys don't even say "yo mamma" anymore, which would explain why Uncle Ken's first response to my story was "WTF?"
I hadn't heard of those shops that made cigarettes for you. Our local smoke shop sells all kinds of cigarettes and cigars off the shelf. They also sell tobacco by the pound, paper tubes to stuff the tobacco into, and the machines that stuff the tobacco into the tubes. There are several different models, most of them hand operated. After trying a few of them, I ended up buying the top-of-the line electric model. It costs over a hundred dollars, but you make that back on the first few cartons you produce, and the machine lasts for years. After paying for the machine, it costs me about 15 bucks to make a carton of cigarettes and, last I heard, a carton of store bought ones cost 50 or 60 dollars.
Michigan already had one of the highest cigarette taxes in the nation, but any tax they might have had on bulk tobacco was insignificant. Obama's bill increased the cigarette tax and also levied a tax on tobacco that almost doubled the price. A one pound bag went from $20 to almost $40. A few months later, some enterprising entrepreneur noticed that the tax increase was only on cigarette tobacco, not pipe tobacco. With the help of the nice lady at the smoke shop, I found a brand of "pipe tobacco" that I liked, and it sold for 20 bucks a pound. Now I know the difference between cigarette tobacco and pipe tobacco because I used to smoke a pipe, and I don't know how they can get away with calling this stuff pipe tobacco, but I'm glad that they can.
I guess the reason this tobacco tax bothered me so much was that it occurred early in Obama's presidency, a time that is commonly called the "honeymoon period". The other stuff that happened later was par for the course, but this one came as a surprise. Looking back on it, I shouldn't have been surprised. After all, that is what people do to each other on their honeymoon.
Sticks and stones may break my bones...
Either my memory is failing or there are egregious gaps in my education because I don't recall a damn thing about the English Civil War. Sorry guys, I have nothing to add, but I do recall something about Guy Fawkes wanting to blow up Parliament, but that could be faulty memory, too.
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Mr. Beagles has pushed a button putting Uncle Ken in a state of high dudgeon with his "Yo Momma" term; I chuckled when I read it but for a different reason. I thought the term had some irony because, despite his name and genetics, Obama has always struck me as an extremely "white bread" type of guy and it cracked me up when Uncle Ken referred to him as "black." Meaning no disrespect, but I don't think the former president had any clue to black culture until he hooked up with Michelle. That's just my impression since I've never met or talked with guy but over the years I have worked with, hung out with, and enjoyed the company of plenty of black folks and cousin Barack pales in comparison with their sense of black culture and identity. African American? Sure, but black, not so much.
Obama was too cool and dispassionate for his own good. There were a couple of times that I wanted to see him get a little worked up and angry in a "street" sense, cussing a bit, and really tear into the obstructionists. But it was all ice and no fire, like Mr. Spock, when he should have been channeling Capt. Kirk. Disclaimer: I'm not locked into these opinions and am willing to consider contrary information of a factual nature.
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"Pity" was a poor choice of words on my part, so I had to dig a little and find a better substitute. Sadness, distress, and nonplussed are better choices; take your pick, they all work reasonably well in the context of my post.
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What criteria was this curious site using to analyze writing?
According to the site (search for "I write like"): Check which famous writer you write like with this statistical analysis tool, which analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them with those of the famous writers.
Don''t put a lot of stock in it; it's for amusement purposes only. I plugged other posts of mine in it and different authors came up as matches.
I never heard of that Doctorow, and his wiki wasn't very impressive. Why is he among Kurt and Arthur C?
His wikipedia entry wasn't very impressive? Besides award-winning writing he is quite an activist, involved with the Electronic Freedom Foundation, Creative Commons, and other efforts to preserve digital rights and keep the government out of our private lives. Most, if not all, of his works are available for free download; he's found that free downloads increase the sales of the physical books. There are also plenty of talks and lectures available on YouTube; the guy is a hero in some circles.
He was included with Kurt V. and Arthur C. because he matched the writing style of Mr. Beagles,just as Uncle Ken matched Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., as shown in the original post.
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There's a little more buzz on that strike I mentioned: Anti-Trump activists call a national general strike for Feb 17: buy nothing, protest everywhere.
For a further glimpse into Trump's character, I found a few odd tidbits excerpted from a biography by Harry Hurt discussing his marriage to Marla Maples:
...also reported that he would never let her see him naked: He made her leave the room while he got undressed and would be under the covers when she came back.
Huh? All I can think of is Yakuza tattoos, but there is a Hell's Angels chapter in NYC.
Trump also agreed to help Maples get modeling and acting gigs, but according to Hurt, he made her sign a contract in which she agreed to pay him a percentage of every job she got.
Truly, a loving husband.
But to close on a more positive note, with some hope for the future, I read this, too:
Congressman To File Bill Requiring A Psychiatrist At The White House
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