_____ _____ _____ ___ _____
|___ | |___ |___ |_ | | _ |
__| |__ __ __| | | | | | | |_| | _____ _____ __ __
|__ | \/ ||__ | | | | | | _ | | ___| _ | \/ |
___| | |\/| |___| | | |_| |_| |_| |_| |___| |_| | |\/| |
|_____|_| |_|_____| |_|_____|_____|_|_____|_____|_| |_|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disappointing people, one at a time, since 1967.
Now only $0.54 a day.
Continuous improvement ... free!
Now with Style! A puzzle wrapped up in an enigma.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
____
| _ \
| |_| |_ ________ _____
| _ <| / _| _ | _ |
| |_| | / | |_| | |_| |
|____/|_| |_____|____ |
_| |
|___|
2015-01-04 I'm back. For now. With capitalisation. A $99 computer from
Staples and a new $65 hard disk drive from a local computer
store made it so. And some family-free time.
I was surprised to see that the LCS still existed. I figured with all the
social media, pay-it-forward, YOLO, bucket list, selfie, mash-up bullshit that
has ruined computers for the truly deserving, the ones who have put their time
in, with emotional scars to prove, LCSes surely would have disappeared.
I enjoy blaming social media for everything that is wrong with this world.
The only thing that can save us now is for Yellowstone to erupt with all her
fury. It's selfish of me to think this way, especially for my children,
but honestly, let 'er rip.
2015-01-05 I promise you, this will not be a daily thing. The main reasons
for resurrecting this page are b-fold: a) I'm paying for the web
space; and b) I need a "go to" page for seldom referenced, but always "needed"
information. I will do my best not to bore with diatribes. Were I younger,
I'd likely do so. With age comes wisdom and wisdom shows that no one likes
a windbag.
2015-01-10 I have reached a new popcorn paradigm. Don't just use salt,
use sea salt. Seriously, popcorn with sea salt is a gajillion
times tastier. Read on for instructions on making the best popcorn ever.
2015-01-14 I use a bicycle for year-round transportation. Even in winter.
I have temperature thresholds and road condition limits, but,
most days I persevere and make the 7 kilometre twice. Truth be told,
cycling in winter is my favorite.
In the winter, even when outfitted with properly underinflated studded tires,
there's a good chance that at any given moment, the physics of soft rubber
with tungsten carbide studs adhering to the ground will fail and I'll go down.
Please remember that when you are passing me way too close and way too fast in
your four-wheel killing machine.
2015-01-28 Randomness: Setting number of rings to voicemail on Virgin
Mobile:
*94 and press "send". Then when it answers, press 2-9 for the number of
rings desired before the call goes to voicemail.
Some sort of note about what looks to be setting up a sound card and
odds-n-ends:
sudo vi /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
options snd-hda-intel model=generic
press "esc"
on 24-23-generic
"e"
cursor down to kernel
"c"
add "acpi=off"
"b"
/boot/grub/menu.lst
acpi=off
make clean
make
sudo make install
Two years ago, or so, I experienced some severe upper back pain. It was
pain unlike I had ever experienced in my back. Passing a kidney stone
was worse, but this back pain was worse than the pain attributed to my
vasectomy healing. The chiropractor diagnosed it as a "cervical facet
joint sprain". He did one manipulation and the pain disappeared.
2015-03-04 Japan was delicious.
2015-04-06 After a week of hand-wringing, I renewed this domain and web
hosting for another three years (15% discount). I really should
let it go, but like my gambling addiction, it's hard (heheheheh, hard).
Maybe next time.
2015-04-08 Permissions: -rw-r--r--
2015-05-21 Regardless of how it's marketed, bottle water is an
inconvenience. Maybe it's how I was using it, but not drinking
bottled water has made my life better.
I hated going out and getting the bottles refilled. I hated having to think
about securing the filled bottles to stop them from tipping over in the trunk
on the return trip. I hated driving even slower than I usually do when the
bottles were "resting upright" unsecured in the trunk. I hated carting the
bottles in the house. I hated having to transfer water from the 19 litre
bottles to smaller 4 litre bottles because we were too cheap to purchase a
water cooler that would waste space in the kitchen because of poorly
laid-out plugins.
I hated the fact I was paying $2 for 19 litres of water when I get 2 litres
of water out of the tap for a penny. I hated the fact I wasted time and
energy doing "water runs". I appreciated the "family-free" time this often
granted me, but using family-free time on a task that irritates me is
wasted time.
I really hated the fact that the bottled water I so religiously attended to
only had limited use in our home. A good deal of our overall water
consumption was "Brita-filtered" fridge-cooled tap water anyhow, filtered
to remove the chlorine the finished water has and the algal blooms that
plague the source water; anything boiled was straight from the tap.
But, mostly, I hated that I bought into the rhetoric of what bottled water
is. Sure, bottled water is "pure water", but it's also tasteless, dead,
corrosive water. I remember from university learning what reverse osmosis
water was. Yes, it has it's uses. One of them is not drinking.
If our tap water was questionable, I might reconsider bottled water, but,
regardless of what others will say, our tap water is not. I fault the City
for many things; delivering clean, healthy, inexpensive drinking water, try
as I might, I can not.
2016-02-18 Japan: delicious as always.
2016-07-21 These pages are now powered by the power of a Raspberry Pi 3
Model B. I take a great deal of nerdy pleasure in using low-end,
low-power computers for uncountable reasons that I will not flush out now.
The RPi3B fits the bill and more. Plus, it's the perfect outlet for me to
use the IBM SK-8835 keyboard I picked up in Japan this year. The trackpoint
keyboard is, by far, my favorite. Trackpoints will even surpass standard
IBM Model Ms (heresy!) for desirability.
2016-08-08 I've had ample time to perfect the popcorn recipe below. I will
keep the original text intact as an artifact. Here's the low
down of my studies.
I've reduced the amount of popcorn to maybe two and a half tablespoons. Oil
is added mainly to make the salt stick. It is not required for popping. An
oil-free product can be made with no other changes in cooking time.
Coconut oil makes for a superior product.
1. Open bag.
2. Add popcorn.
3. Add oil (a tablespoon is all that is required).
4. Add seasoning.
5. Shake to mix well.
6. Allow mixture to settle along a long side of bottom of bag.
7. Fold top as described below.
8. Lay bag ON ITS SIDE, wide side down, with popcorn still gathered at
bottom fold.
9. Pop as described below.
10. Enjoy.
2016-08-14 I seriously hate buying headphones in this country.
2016-08-15 I now have the new Perfume album. Anticipation has killed what
likely might have been a less critical first listen. I appear
to be underwhelmed. From what I have heard, the album has none of the charm
of the previous albums.
I am sad.
2016-08-16 Hooray!?! My $17 feature phone has arrived! It's a million
times larger than the phone my mobile provider is forcing me
to give up because of decommissioning of the CDMA network. OK, not a million
times larger, but it goes from 108mm x 45mm x 16mm to 120mm x 50mm x 15mm
(that's 77mL to a whopping 90mL!).
I'm mostly upset that I'm being forced to buy a new phone when I have a
phone that still works. Honestly. I "love" my Samsung. It's tiny and
perfect in every way.
The new "BLU" has an micro SD slot, a camera, a music player, a flash light
and a larger keypad. However, it does not does not have predictive text entry
or a hand strap holder. I can't decide if that's going to be a deal killer.
The hand strap. Not predictive text.
2016-08-22 Disappointment: the default setting.
2016-08-25 New Text Msg
FROM :
433381
Attn Member! An 16
older network will 19
shut down in your 18
area so your phone, 20
incl 911, may not 18
work as soon as 16
1/31/17. Deets at 18
vm.ca/updates 13
CB# : \
No Number \
2:50P Thu Aug 25 total characters: 138
Deets? Seriously? As much as I don't hate Virgin Mobile, their marketing
campaign makes me want to step in front of a moving bus.
2016-08-28 "Kareishu" raises it's smelly head once again and again I am
reminded that I am less than a year away from AM radio nirvana.
2016-08-31 Each day I take solace in the fact that I have one less day that
can be ruined by difficult people.
2016-09-02 Don't do me any fucking favors.
2016-09-09 Entry removed.
2016-09-11 I have secured two future jobs, at least in my nuclear family's
eyes: bicycle repairman and custom blind installer.
Want a fog-free mirror in your bathroom? Take a smaller-than-pea-size "dot"
of shampoo, lather it up in your hands and wipe down the surface of the
mirror. This seems to work better if the mirror has fogged over already, as
the fog on the mirror helps spread the lathered shampoo. I'd hazard a guess
that having your hands slightly wet would work the same on a dry mirror
before the humidity builds. Wipe until the surface is fog- and streak-free.
Lasts for days. It really is a thing of beauty.
2016-09-16 The new Perfume album is still underwhelming, but it's getting
better. The autotuned harmonies are always pleasing and a few
of the songs rise above the mediocrity that is most of the album. Yasutaka
Nakata really has run out of ideas.
2016-09-19 I got my first straight edge razor today. And there was a good
cut above my upper lip, very reminiscent of my first days with
a safety razor. But worse, because the cut is easily half the length of the
blade. I finished with a safety razor. I got my sideburns nice and clean
with the straight edge, but to hell if I can figure out the technique for the
rest of my face. I suppose the technique will come in time, but that
bloodletting was a major disappointment. The dependent replied with "Enough
already! Just shave with what you know!"
I'll give it a rest for now.
2016-10-05 I have become what I have mocked. Not so smrt anymore are you,
sir?
2016-11-22 Skated for the first time in easily 35 years. I love it.
I totally suck and the antique sakes I'm using kill my feet,
but I love it. Regret #34562: not skating for 35 years.
2016-11-26 The dire warnings that winter is coming prompted me to replace
the shitty German winter tires on my winter bike, tires that
17 steps past being completely useless, with the good Finnish winter tires
that I bought last year after suffering through a winter previous with
shitty German winter tires that I bought because the local bike shop made
bullshit excuses that they couldn't bring in the Finnish tires even though
after I ordered them from a shop in the United States a seller on Amazon.ca
sold them for less than what I paid for them from the American bike shop.
The Finnish tires had better live up to the false expectations created by
my memory of cycling on them for the past twenty years.
2016-11-27 I bought skates today. New skates. $60 skates. They have to
be better than the antique skates I was killing my ankles with
from my youth. I guess I'll find out on Tuesday.
2016-11-28 For over a week now, when I went to dial out on my mobile phone*,
the screen went black and became completely unresponsive.
There's nothing I could do to get the screen back and I was forced to hold
the power down and restart the phone. What on Earth was happening?
I restarted the phone with the volume button down a couple of times and it
brought the phone into this wonky Taiwanese Acer world, full of menus and
buttons in Chinese only that don't ask for confirmation before they go
ahead and do things that I don't understand. Maybe they were root menus,
but a good deal of them were for testing features on the phone, like
cycling through the notification LED light colors, checking that the
cameras work and what not.
I restarted the phone and let the OS do a bunch of "updating" of
applications. Once the home screen was up, I tried to make a call out with
the same response: dead black screen, forced to restart.
Restarted again, I went into Settings/Backup & reset and did a factory data
reset. Note: this particular Acer phone would not let me do this reset
with less than 20% battery, even with the phone plugged in.
Upon restarting, I had a new phone. It was my understanding that contacts
saved on the SIM card are supposed to stay there. They didn't. My phone
is now contact-free. I really thought this new "smrt" world was supposed
to be helpful.
Before I tried calling out again, I did a search for "android phone screen
blank when make phone call". Didn't get any real answers, but for a laugh,
I removed the small piece of "Post-It" note that I had covering up the front
facing camera. Can you guess what happened when I tried calling out?
D'oh!
Why was I covering up the front-facing camera? Because the Chinese are
using it to spy on me, don't you know. And the rear-facing camera. And
the microphone. Maybe I will now use a piece of translucent tape over the
camera, so that light will still pass through (note: this only sometimes
works).
One good thing came out of this exercise in madness. I now have over 2GB**
of free space on the phone's main storage; I was running with less than
800MB prior. I turfed a few more applications, mostly the Acer cloud shit,
but I hardly think that four applications would free up 1.5GB of storage.
It also appears to boot faster.
I'm still pissed about losing the contacts that were supposedly on the SIM
card. I really thought that was the point of the SIM card was that contacts
on the SIM card would stay on the SIM card. I wrote down most of the
contacts out of my old CDMA phone last night into a paper day planner that
I sometimes carry around. There's something comforting about writing stuff
down. I used a fountain pen to do so.
* The cheap-ass $17 mobile phone purchased in August would only work on the
Rogers network and had prickboy at the Rogers kiosk not been such a pushy
bastard, I might have switched networks. He seemed convinced that I could
save money by going to a $25 talk-and-text plan (it might have been $15; I
suppose I could look it up, but I won't bother) instead of staying with
my existing pay-as-you-go plan of $0.35 a minute phone calls and 100 texts
a month for $5. I've got convincing data from the last six years that
pay-as-you-go would be in my best interest, but prickboy would have none
of that. Instead, I bought an unlocked Acer SMRT phone for $100 and
connected it to my current mobile provider. I quietly mock prickboy when
I pass him in the mall: "Ah you need $25 talk-and-text plan. It save you
money. Very famous." The cheap-ass $17 mobile phone makes a great FM
radio that doesn't require a pair of shitty headphones to work.
** After allowing allowing updates to run amok, 2GB was reduced to 1GB (a
second culling and deactivating of applications brought free space close
to 1.2GB), but 1GB is better than 800MB. Maybe now the four Acer apps
that I turfed accounted for the difference.
2016-11-29 New skates provided much support, but still killed my feet. I
lasted about 40 minutes before calling it quits. But, it was
awesome. I have no memory of skating on freshly sharpened blades so
tonight's outing was pure bliss. With pain. Pain and bliss. Why did I
stop skating?
2016-11-30 My shortlist of personal left-handed and left-dominance issues
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- pens and mechanical pencils that eventually unscrew themselves (pretty
much any tool that is threaded will come apart if I don't continually
tighten it. Examples: x-acto knives, safety razors.
- utility knives can be dangerous as the locking mechanism is on the wrong
side
- credit card swiping
- binders and coil notebooks
- tape measures (they read upside down)
- zippers
- scissors
- can openers
- knives in general
- locks and door handles
- teaching others to tie laces
- push broom handles
- track pads on laptops "set" for left-handed use
- winding mechanisms
- setting clocks
- setting most electronic devices; the layout is very often right-biased
- cameras with viewfinders
Many left-handed people complain about computer keyboards, especially those
with numeric keypads. I've found them to not be a problem if the mouse is
set the left side of the keyboard and the mouse buttons reversed. This
setup is well balanced.
I have problems with ironing, or using any power tool with a cord. This,
however, might be function of how terrible I am with ironing or using power
tools in general.
I learned, rather poorly, to play the guitar as a right-handed person because
all my "teachers" were right-handed.
Most of these I have learned to accommodate, but, without fail, not before
failing at using initially.
2016-12-08 Another day of -20C and nasty, soul-sucking winds on my way to
work. I am thankful that "we" escaped the mountains of snow
that fell elsewhere, but the wind, seriously, enough. For the second day
in a row, by the time I got to [an important intersection on my ride, I was
ready to pull over, lie down in the ditch and die. I carried on because
dying was the selfish way out, but I had made peace with myself waiting for
the lights to change.
I dislike wind very much.
2016-12-15 With the purchase of a Panasonic "Sure Time" RC-76 clock radio,
I have unofficially begun my decent into partaking in CLASSIC
ROCK RADIO while at work. I saw it coming, but it wasn't to happen until
my 50th year on this planet.
I was exchanging some email messages with a friend regarding the mostly
complete lack of variety of songs played during the no-repeat work day.
I commented that I didn't "get" the Beatles. Replied was an exchange he
had with a cow orker regarding the Beatles. It was noted that people
generally fall into one of two camps: Beatles or Rolling Stones and
likened the fanaticism to the Coke versus Pepsi debate.
We also agreed that we didn't get Jimmy Buffett and his lackluster song
"Margaritaville". This song's mysterious effect on white people is beyond
explanation. I'm often brought to embarrassment when I hear this song,
similar to having left my fly down or walking out of a public restroom with
toilet paper clinging to my shoe. And yet most white people whip themselves
into a steamy orgasmic frenzy upon hearing the opening bars.
I don't get it.
2016-12-17 It took me about 40 minutes to drag out the Hi-Fi last night,
with a good ten minutes spent looking through countless*
identically sized, unlabelled, white boxes to find the interconnects.
Was it worth the effort this time? All signs point to yes. New music that
appeared to shine with portable audio was beyond shiny on the Hi-Fi. That
wasn't my experience three years ago. Three years ago was lacklustre after
lacklustre; I can't explain why. While the Hi-Fi made lots of stuff
brilliant, it also spotlighted obvious production and recording issues that
portable audio glazes over. I'd like to have a better sound stage, but
interconnect and cable lengths are not as generous as I remember them being.
And I'd really like the backlight on the CD player** to work.
* There were seven of them.
** Yes, CDs. I can do vinyl; I choose not to.
2016-12-22 "No name" ginger ale is rather disgusting.
2016-12-23 Until the United Nations declares internet access as a basic
human right, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications
Commission can stick it. No need to elaborate.
2016-12-24 For the last six years, I've been doing calendars of the boys to
give as gifts to the grandparents. I dislike this task because
I procrastinate until I'm dealing with inflexible* end-of-year timelines;
truth be told, procrastination is, irritatingly, the default setting.
This year was doubly irritating as I was left on my own to make the photo
selections. I am not found of leading or being in charge of anything; to be
the sole decision maker of this year's calendar project caused no end of
consternation. However, using non-old-as-fuck hardware diminished the final
assembly's pain to a level of gentle uneasiness.
* Self-imposed.
2016-12-30 Apparently, I am to only use one space after any sort of
punctuation, not two. And this is not just a recent style point,
it's been around for ages. The typing classes I took many decades ago, that
I held as gospel and would talk with an air of superiority to young'uns,
taught me so. I held this belief with religious fanaticism. Don't believe
me? Search "one or two spaces after period" and either nod your head
knowingly or shake your head off your neck with disbelief.
It should have dawned on me when I learned HTML two and a half decades ago.
I was mystified when coding pages that the only way I could have two spaces
after a period ending a sentence was to hard code the space or create my
documents, much like I am doing with this one, with <pre> </pre> tags.
I honestly thought that the creators of hypertext markup language were
idiots. Seriously, how could anyone writing a text formatting language not
know that two spaces after periods at the ends of sentences was not correct.
Come on!
I never bothered to do any research on the topic. What I was taught was
right! I still have the typing manuals that tell me so.
Nothing is as it was.
With quiet resolve, unless someone brings up the topic in conversation, I'll
continue to use two spaces after periods at the end of sentences, colons,
exclamation marks and question marks, but not be preachy about it. A
multi-decade habit will be hard to break; I have no intention of changing now.
Do they even teach typing anymore?
2017-01-01 Generations: 1883-1900 Lost Generation
1901-1924 G.I. (Greatest) Generation
1925-1945 Silent Generation
1946-1964 Baby Boomers*
1965-1980 Generation X
1980-2000 Millennials**
2001- Generation Z**
* The Baby Boomers can be 1946-1953 Me Generation
broken into two groups: 1954-1964 Generation Jones
** No consensus on transition date. Sometime between 1995 and 2000 is
generally considered the break point.
2017-01-03 My side burns are driving me crazy. Not as crazy as when I fall
on my head and decide to try to grow out a beard, but similar.
Two months has netted not at all what I wanted. I keep wanting my side
burns to fill in. All that is happened is the two dozen hairs on each side
have grown out erratic, curly and grey. Lame.
2017-01-04 I forgot how addictively yummers the enteric coating on Advil(R)
products is.
2017-01-11 I spent my afternoon and early evening with my parents and their
new Windows 10 laptop. I was able to confirm what I had
suspected: 10 is more ridiculous than 7, but umpteen times better than 8.
And I confirmed why I remain a Linux user: there is absofuckinglutely
nothing cool about using Windows. It's useful to know, like remembering to
breathe is useful to staying alive, but no nerd points are gained from doing
anything in it. And I can still not pin windows on top of others.
The democratization of computers has ruined them. I am saddened by this. I
still staunchly believe that computers require operating licenses, regardless
of how impossible that would be to enforce. There are very basic things
that should be known. System memory and storage, while using the same
unit of measure, are entirely different things. You can use the TAB key to
navigate between fields. The ESC key does things. So do function keys.
So does the "Windows" key. Mouse pads do help the mouse track properly.
Touch screens make your screen dirty. File type associations should not be
assumed. And as technology has evolved, the idea of an installed office
suite for home users to type up recipes or ranting letters to the editor
that will be printed once and never saved is more than ludicrous.
2017-01-30 Babymetal's song "Syncopation" just might be the most expensive
song I've ever bought.* I dislike version differences between
domestic and import releases of music, mostly because they will force me to
buy both. Both versions of "Metal Resistance"** have twelve songs. For the
domestic version "From Dusk Till Dawn" holds track seven's place, a song
that I exclude from playlists because it's ballady and uninteresting.***
The import version includes "Syncopation" in this place. "Syncopation" is a
far more interesting song. It might even rock.
I did little to no research about "Syncopation" other than I knew I didn't
have it. I found the import versrion of "Metal Resistance" at Book-Off. I
put off buying it for a couple of days, and this brought me no end of
internal worrying that I might not be able to get back to Book-Off to find
it not there. When visiting the Land of the Rising Sun, the lesson learned
time and time again is to not put off buying stuff because I'll waste more
time and money getting stuff at a later date.
The biggest worry after buying the album was that "Syncopation" might turn
out to be another "From Dusk Till Dawn". I waited until the boys were
asleep to find out. It wasn't. I could have my Go ass handed to me
handily without anymore "Syncopation" worries.
* Truth be told, at 1750 yen, the two Hamasaki Ayumi singles I bought
during my obsessive period with her, "Kanariya" and for the sake of this
entry, "Fly High", likely fetched more per song due to the nature of their
releases. These singles have an interesting history, but one I will not
expand on in this entry. I've written about them before. I'll try to find
the original text and repost it at a later time.
** There's also a song on both albums, the last track, that differs between
domestic and import versions. The domestic version is the song "One" sung
entirely in English, which is uninteresting for countless reasons. The
import version sports a track titled "The One", which differs because,
while it's the same song, it is not not entirely sung in English and thus,
moderately more interesting, but not interesting enough to make it on a
playlist.
*** Never having listened to this song in its entirety until now, I will
retract most of this statement, except I doubt it will ever make it to a
playlist.
2017-02-06 I sleep at night. I sleep at night, but I never wake up rested.
I can't remember the last time I woke up feeling, not exhausted,
but never ever refreshed. I've been at a loss as to why this is. Today, I
have some insight.
"Maybe Kevin is keeping you awake, dad."
Kevin is a troll that lives in my belly button. I don't remember the
origins of Kevin, but he's been around for a while. Kevin sleeps during the
day and forages for food at night. When I'm sleeping. It all makes sense
now.
"It's his "back and forth, back and forth, back and forth" that's keeping
you awake".
On the plus side, my belly button has never been so clean. I won't be
getting rid of Kevin any time soon.
2017-02-08 Kevin's last name is Martrich. Apparently he has a tricycle
that he rides around at night. It's the tires that make me feel
itchy.
Each visit, with not real intention, I focus on one particular musical group
and filling holes in their catalog. A couple of years ago, it was Hotei
Tomoyasu. Last year it was Perfume. I filled a small gap in Babymetal this
year, but the big one has been Ken Yokoyama and some of the bands he's been
involved in: his solo work, BBQ Chickens and Hi-Standard.
Dollar stores have been disappointing this visit. I've been able to find a
few treasures, but specific things I planned on Y2King I've been unable to.
The shaving stuff that was in abundance last year is rarer than spotting a
public telephone or a Korean car this time around. The same goes for small
pencil cases.
2017-02-16 Japan was delicious.
2017-02-27 While looking for some office supplies I knew I had packratted
away at work, I found a Hughes Owens 1768C slide rule I had
forgotten about. I am always torn as to where I should keep treasures like
this. Do I keep it at work and risk thievery (low risk) or water damage
(high risk), to have it thrown out when I die (inevitable risk) or keep it
at home and risk child vandalism (high risk) or water damage (high risk),
to have it thrown out when I die (inevitable risk)? Either way, the slide
rule will do me no good when the world economies collapse, but at least
I will be able to calculate the interest I will not get on money I no longer
have.
I can only hope for Yellowstone to erupt first (and you'd thought I'd
forgotten about Yellowstone. Tsk tsk).
2017-04-29 I've been dealing with a painful sinus infection for two weeks
now. Along with constant pain in my sinuses and a burning sore
throat from my sinuses forever draining, the gums around the back lower left
teeth were full of hurt. I mostly sucked it up by taking excessive amounts
of ibuprofen, acetaminophen and pseudoephedrine. The pseudoephedrine kept
me buzzed just enough to mostly forget about the pain that the other two
drugs were doing nothing for.
I've been doing my best to *not* sinus rinse, but I sneak in a rinse every
once in a while to relieve the pressure. During my rinse this morning,
long, black filamentous strings of something were washed out. No word of
a lie, it was like a demonic extraction. I have never seen anything like
that rinsed out before. Within an hour, the pain in my lower jaw had almost
completely disappeared, my sinuses no longer ached and the burning in my
throat was reduced to residual pain from weeks of hurt.
Bizarre.
2017-05-01 A couple of weeks ago, I dug out the "old" "expensive" JVC buds,
HA-FXD80, I had bought about four years ago in Japan, mostly
because I've not been completely happy with the "new" "less expensive" JVC
buds, HA-FXH20, I bought last last year. The 20s were bought because I
thought the 80s were being to "rattle".
At Yodobashi Camera, I can spend all day listening to headphones, but the
store is noisy, with the endless audio loop of advertising in a minimum of
eight different languages, informing me that I can buy things "duty free"
and that there's helpful staff always waiting to assist me in the language
of my choosing.* ** The only thing I've been able to compare in store is
the volume and the amount of ear-rattling bass the buds have or whether
there's no high end. The 20s delivered about the same amount of volume and
the same clarity of the 80s, in store, so the 20s were bought. It's sitting
at home, in the living room, in the early peaceful hours of the morning,
in Canada, far away from the store, that the difference came out. The
sound stage of the 20s is very two-dimensional, while the 80s are full and
deep and detailed.
What a pompous, pretentious ass thing to type.
I had waffled this year when looking at headphones. There were
"replacements" of the 80s at Yodobashi Camera that were well over 10000 yen.
If I now look back at how much I paid for the 80s and remember that I
bought them on sale, the replacements weren't really all that out of line.
Inflation is a bitch. So is memory loss.
* Not true.
** At least in the dozen Yodobashi's I've visited.
2017-05-28 I will go on record as saying Bottlecaps suck. In the sense of
sucking. Bottlecaps did not used to suck. They were one of my
favorite compressed sugar candies, with the root beer and cola flavored
disks being sort and and left for last because they were so go. This candy
is, like many other candies of my childhood, different and sucky, in the
sense of sucking, and I am irritated by this. Bottlecaps are now thicker
and softer than they used to be. All the flavors are not the same. They
are no longer good. I actually don't want to introduce them to my children
because I don't want them to think dad has no taste.*
Other candies that used to be awesome and now suck:
- Rockets
- Love Hearts
* They already know this, I just don't need them being reminded by my sucky
taste in candies.
2017-06-05 I have disabled the functionality of my mobile phone as best I can
without rooting it. Why? Numerous reasons. I might elaborate
later. The main reason is that I don't want to use it as designed, so
crippling it stops the temptation. I can text on it, place and receive calls
and take pictures with the toy camera in it. That's it. I need to charge
every five to seven days.
2017-07-18 I have spent the last five evenings re-reading favorite haunts
regarding cascading style sheets. I enjoy coding webpages,
regardless of how shitty I am at doing so. Tonight, I had gotten through
recoding this windbag bit and had started venturing into the "information"
bit. I gave up after coding around the second ASCII title. Oh, I probably
could have made it through the rest of the page, swapping out hard formatting
for css, but being hard turned out to be better than having style. I kept
some style bits that worked, but the hard coding is lends itself to the
agenda that I am pushing.*
* No clue.
2017-07-27 404 page = broked. ! idea why. I = sad. Make email web
provider. Answer = use web hosting software, make configure.
Look at web hosting software. Soul ache: on-line page maker thinger.
Wish for halcyon days when .htaccess controlled functioning. Figure out
default 404 page name. Aha moment. Make fix. Look at log metrics for
pages. People hot-linking graphics. Rename directories and images.
I = happy when people ! steal content. Consider irony. Still post entry.
2017-08-09 With reference to 2015-01-10, popcorn with butter is damn good,
too.
2017-08-10 With reference to 2016-04-06, some time near the beginning of
this year, I let my lottery habit go. I had been playing the
same numbers for the past way too long, since I was able to legally buy
lottery tickets likely. Every once in a while, I'd win a bit of money, but
never enough to stop going into work. I wrestled with this decision, but
ultimately I decided to walk away and never look at the numbers again,
because if when my numbers do come up, and I found out about it, I'd have
to kill myself.
2017-08-12 With reference to 2017-05-28, I will go on record that
Flintstone's multivitamins suck. They didn't used to suck.
They are fatter, softer and far less yummy than before. Bayer, you, along
with Willy Wonka, suck. I was able to buy some generic children's
multivitamins at the dollar store from a company called Vita Health that
were far closer to what Flintstone's multivitamins used to be at a fraction
of the cost, but the supply dried up. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd cite
dollar store for not having a license or permit or whatever to sell vitamins
and supplements. I haven't searched elsewhere for these generics yet, but
given the terribleness of the state of Flintstone's multivitamins, I will
start.
2017-08-14 The Beach Boys album "Pet Sounds" is as weird and uninteresting
now as it was 40 years ago when I first pulled it out of my
father's record collection and gave it a spin. I mean, I suppose I get it*,
but it meanders all over the place and is far from listenable. Sort of like
jazz, jazz music, which I also do not get. I haven't given jazz a chance,
but neither have I given suicide a chance.
* No, I don't.
2017-08-15 My desire to be sociable is tempered by my contempt for others.
2017-08-31 Two things: First, I sent my first 100th text message within
a payment cycle of my text message addon of 100 messages for five
bucks. In the seven years that I've been keeping track of the text messages
sent per month, I've never sent more than my allotment. Until today. I have
four days left in the payment cycle. Messages past the 100 are twenty cents
a piece. The next text messaging "bracket" is 500 messages for seven bucks.
I've got a buffer of ten messages before I "break the bank". I can do less
than ten messages in four days, especially with the weekend coming up. I
only sent one today.
Second, when you think it's a stupid idea to throw away all those itty bitty
screws that you collect when you rip apart, well, pretty much anything, don't
throw them away. You'll be able to put back together your son's pull-back
Morris Mini because you disassembled it over top of your computers in poor
lighting conditions. I never heard it hit the floor, so it's got to be
hanging in the tangle of cables.
2017-09-05 With reference to 2017-08-31, first thing: I made it.
2917-09-19 For the month of September, so far, I've switched from hot shaving
to cold shaving, that is to say, shaving with cold water instead
of hot. Water, regardless of being hot or cold, is softened. Observations:
1) Less water is wasted, especially the initial minute or so to get hot water
out of the tap.
2) A side-effect of the less water used is that I spend less time shaving or
have more time to shave.
3) The soap brush still hydrates properly.
4) The soap still foams.
5) Marginal, if any, irritation.
6) Weepers weep less and happen less often.
7) Whiskers are cut as close, if not closer, as hot shaving.
It's literally win-win on every point.
2017-09-26 Listening to music takes time. I've figured out ways to compress
the activity, but the results are never satisfying. It really is
worth the effort, I can't find the time lately.
----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
____ _ _
| _ \|_| | |
| |_| |_ ____ _ _ ____| |_____
| _ <| | __| | | | __| | __ |
| |_| | | |__| |_| | |__| | |___|
|____/|_|____|___ |____|_|_____|
| |
|_|
WB TT DT ST
1: Raleigh Rocky 26"x1.50" 41.5" 22" 24" 18.5"
2: Raleigh Rocky 26"x1.95"
3: Sekine 26"x1.35" 40.5" 21" 23" 19.5"
4: Giant Halfway 20"x1.75" 39.5"
5: Dahon 16"
----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
_____ _
| ___| _| |_
| | _____ __ __ _____ _ |_ _|__ _____ ____
| | | _ | \/ | _ | | | | | / _| _ | _ \
| |___| |_| | |\/| | |_| | |_| | | / | |_| | | | |
|_____|_____|_| |_| ___|_____|_|_| |_____|_| |_|
| |
|_|
Typical software reinstalled when I crash my Raspberry Pi OS installs:
- firefox-esr - gimp
- gftp - xfonts-intl-asian
- geany-plugin-spellcheck - gnugo
- vim - asunder
- audacious - lame
My .vimrc file
set nocompatible
set nowrap
set ruler
set showmode
set showcmd
set smartindent
set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
My userChrome.css file (because Firefox is only real web browser)
/* Display the sidebar on the right */
#browser { -moz-box-direction: reverse; }
#sidebar {max-width: none !important; min-width: 0px !important;}
/* Red text on active tab */
.tabbrowser-tab[selected="true"] {font-weight:bold
!important;color:rgba(255,64,64,1) !important;}
about:config things I've set
ui.click_hold_context_menus set to true \
dom.disable_window_move_resize set to true \_ this stuff allows
dom.disable_window_flip set to true / right-clicking
dom.event.contextmenu.enabled set to false / where blocked
geo.enabled set to false
dom.max_script_run_time default is 10; normally set to 30
general.useragent.override Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux armv7l; rv:45.0)
Gecko/20100101 Firefox/45.0
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:48.0)
Gecko/20100101 Firefox/48.0
ui.SpellCheckerUnderlineStyle (Integer) 0:none, 1:dotted,
2:long dots, 3:line,
4:double line,
5:wavy line (default).
ui.SpellCheckerUnderline (String) default is red #FF0000
ui.SpellCheckerUnderlineRelativeSize (Integer) default is 100, 200, 300
Flash will be the death of us
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
about:plugins
sudo cp libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/flashplugin-installer/
Playlists
~~~~~~~~~
In the SANDISK directory:
find . *.* > /home/username/Music/pl-all.txt
In vi:
:1,$s/\.\/// this removes the ./ at the front of every line
:1,$s/\//\\/g this replaces all the / with \ throughout the entire line
then save the file. At the prompt:
sort -u pl-all.txt -o pl-all.m3u
Edit, and enjoy.
How I hacked away the "/bin/bash: warning: setlocale: LC_ALL: cannot change
locale (en_US.UTF-8)" error on my Slitaz box:
I edited the /etc/locale.conf file to read:
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
_____ _ _
| _ | | |_|
| |_| | _____ ___| |_ _____
| / | _ | _ | | _ |
| |\ \ | |_| | |_| | | |_| |
|_| \_\|___\_\_____|_|_____|
Key presses for setting certain options on my Freeplay Summit radio:
1 + power AM 10 kHz
2 + power AM 9 kHz
3 + power 12-hour clock
4 + power 24-hour clock
----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
_ _ _
| | |_| _| |_
| | _ __|_ _|__
| | | | ___| | ___|
| |___| |___ | |___ |
|_____|_|____|_|____|
Lists - Oh, yes, please, more lists, there can never be enough lists on the inte
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~r
~n
Musics I have playlists for That being said, here's the ~e
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ shortlist of music I'm currently ~t
playing ad nauseum ~s
1. Babymetal ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2. Perfume
3. Jakalope 1. No Small Children
4. Chixdiggit! 2. Reverend Horton Heat
5. Lee Aaron 3. Baby Metal
4. Ken Yokoyama (et al)**
6. AC/DC
7. Ken Yokoyama (et al)**
8. Hinoi Team
9. Me First And The Gimme Gimmes
10. Pixies
11. Hotei
12. Hanson Brothers
13. Donnas
14. Cantoy
15. Headpins
16. Judy and Mary
17. Yelle*
18. No Small Children
* I forgot what this was supposed to mean
** Includes: Ken Yokoyama, Hi-Standard, BBQ Chickens
----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
_____ _
| ___| |
| |___| |_________ _ _ _____
|___ | _ | _ | \ / | __ |
___| | | | | |_| |\ \/ /| |___|
|_____|_| |_|___\_\ \__/ |_____|
My double-edge safety razors Favourite double-edges
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gillette Slim Adjustable 71g 9.2cm TTO Wilkinson Sword Classic
Wilkinson Classic 45g 10.6cm 2P Dorco ST-301
Weishi 57g TTO Feather Hi-Stainless
Baili 72g 9.4cm TTO
Feather Popular 35g 11.5cm TTO
Dorco 12g 11.0cm 2P
TTO: Twist To Open 2P: Two-piece
While I only started to shave with a safety razor in my 48th year,
shaving is no longer a chore, but a task I look forward to doing twice
a day. Yes, twice a day: five minutes at night after bathtime and five
to ten minutes in the morning.
I have two favorites: the Feather Popular and the Dorco. Both are
light-weight razors, which appears to be counter-intuitive to modern
shaving culture. I also love their long handles. Liking the Dorco is a
true surprise. It weighs very little, yet I feel no inclination to push
the blade against my skin to shave with it. Very odd. I prefer the feel
of full metal body razors, but with a good lather of soap, the plastic
Dorco performs very well.
Shaving
~~~~~~~
The correct number of blades a razor should have is one. Any more and the
razor is a gimmick. There is no need for more than one. "Lift and cut"
should be more properly coined "lift and in-grow".
If shaving is painful or irritating, it's being done wrong. The daily
task of whisker reduction should be meditative and enjoyable. Shaving
should be a task to look forward to, not something to dread or avoid.
Shaving should be far from routine; it should be a continuous improvement
exercise on mastering the tools and the technique of whisker reduction.
I appreciate the long-running trend of men looking like hobos with three
plus days worth of whisker growth, regardless of the trim level, because
I don't have to put the full effort into reduction to look presentable.
This statement might seem hypocritical; while it is important to do one's
absolute best, time on Earth is finite and if I need only ten minutes to
evolve, why should I spend fifteen when it will go unnoticed?
----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
DIELECTRIC HEATING OF DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE IN ZEA MAYS L. VAR. EVERTA USING
NON-IONIZING ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
Time:
5 minutes
Materials:
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) of popping corn
- 1 1/3 tablespoon (20 mL) of cooking oil that will not smoke when heated
in the microwave
- salt to taste
Precautions:
Hot oil is hot. So is steam.
Hazards:
Popcorn is addictive.
Procedure:
Mix popcorn, oil and salt together in an appropriate vessel suitable for
mixing popcorn, oil and salt together. Once the popcorn is uniformly coated
with oil and salt, dump the mixture into a brown paper "sack lunch" bag (1).
Fold over the top of the bag twice to seal; folds of 2/3 inch (15 mm) are
appropriate; use "origami" corner folding for extra style points. Place bag,
bottom down, in microwave. Microwave on the highest power setting available
for 90 seconds (2). Remove bag filled with delicious popcorn from microwave.
Handle bag carefully as it is hot and oily and take caution opening to avoid
steam. Enjoy.
Too little oil results in poor popping performance. The popcorn is
surprisingly "light" tasting as the paper bag absorbs a great deal of the oil
while popping.
----------
(1) Taking the time to mix the popcorn, oil and salt well before dumping
has empirically shown to yield a more evenly salted end product in
comparison to adding the salt after the popcorn/oil mixture are
dumped in the bag.
(2) Cooking time is equipment dependent. It will take a few tries to
narrow the cooking time down to where popping is maximised and and
burning is minimised. Using an LG ("Lucky Goldstar") 0.8 cubic foot
microwave, this "max/min" time is 75 seconds. An older Danby
"Designer" 0.8 cubic foot microwave produces similar results in
92 seconds.
----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
-30-