Author: David

Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
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New Policy

Well, no, not new-new. Perhaps a better way to say it is a new statement of a policy that’s grown and matured over time.

Never suffer a fool, gladly or not, for in doing so all you do is kick the can down the road and into a neighbor’s yard. Therefore, when encountering fools, dumbasses, trolls and yahoos, kick THEIR cans as often and as hard as necessary to at least make sure they know what behaviors have earned them their pain.

Of course, “kick their cans” is normatively a metaphorical construction that more or less means, “Read them the riot act, and keep reading it to them as often as you have the time and energy to do so until they at least decide to behave properly around you.”

Almost all of the fools, dumbasses, trolls and yahoos out there are “special snowflakes” who have never had their nonsense and execrably rude behavior thrown back in their faces, have never suffered any consequences for their behaviors. Mock them. Roundly and soundly. Point out each and every one of their flaws (“And you smell bad, too!” is a nice one–especially in Internet fora. *heh*) Name-calling, as long as it is restricted to being descriptive of their behaviors and not as attempts to rebut their arguments (assuming they can make any) is fair. If they fit the class, they’ve earned a wee bit of name-calling, but keep it descriptive and as close as possible to their evidenced behaviors!

Being polite to jackasses only encourages them in their bad behavior. Sometimes, they need a (metaphorical, remember!) 2×4 upside the head. Well, more like most times.

Thatisall.

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You Do Not Want to Have This Image in Your Head

Over on FarceBook, one guy posted,

“got a pedicure yesterday. Need to go to XYZ, WV, and do a mineral bath and massage treatment next.”

My teeth are still good enough, but I’m not flexible enough, anymore, to give myself a “pedicure”. . . *heh*

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Semi-Almost-Halfway Empty Nest/China Syndrome

Five Year Rule? Five years after kids move out, whatever they behind is yours to do with as you will, right?

OK. Just checking. . .

Old, discarded tech; office equipment/supplies; clothing; stuffed toys; bedding; artwork: all on the block, headed for the tip, donated; entering common household use as OURS, now. Whatev’. ‘s’way it goes. . .

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Once more unto the breach. . .

Or should I say, “Once more Mediacom sucks dead bunnies”?

So, last week, the two “strongarm tactics” digital decryption devices that Mediacom lies about, calling them “digital tuners” arrived and did not work. The “20 minute” updates they reported requiring never happened, so yesterday, replacement devices arrived (because that’s the only “solution” Mediacom had) and today. . . I get no functionality from them, either.

Oh, they report needing and update and breeze through “updating” and then. . . “We have detected an interruption in your service. . . ”

Mmmk. Disconnected the device from OUR network entirely. Connected it DIRECTLY to Mediacom’s line in–outside, no less.

Same thing. So, not our wiring, not our problem.

Mediacom non-existant, so-called “tech support” tried resetting the device from their end. At their direction, I (once again!) rebooted their lil device. Nothing. Same error report.

Until Mediacom’s encryption *gagamaggot* “service” *gagamaggot* goes into effect July 1, the digital tuners on our TVs will still work (yes, I have a digital-only channel tuned now via the TV’s tuner, so the signal’s fine; it’s just Mediacom’s crappy “tuner” devices and implementation).

It’s definitively all on Mediacom’s end.

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Does This Irk Me? Well, Yes, It Does.

One word mis-usage I find trending strongly of late is the misuse of “bring” for “take.” It’s an easy (and extremely useful) distinction to make; simplified: bring HERE; take THERE. When someone uses it to say they will “bring [something somewhere]” (or a close variation) to mean they will TAKE [something somewhere], it’s a pretty clear sign that they aren’t really literate . . . OR have been spending WAY too much time in the company of illiterates and have succumbed to their bad influence.

“My brakes are acting up. I’m going to bring it in tomorrow to find out what’s wrong,” only semi-works IF the speaker is at the mechanic’s at the time of speaking (or is speaking to the mechanic about bringing it to him. Of course, if one were AT the mechanic’s at the time and had bad brakes, it’d be foolish not to leave the car at that time). If one were NOT at the mechanic’s and NOT speaking to him but to a third party, then “bring” is just stupid in that context.

Puzzle out those funny lil squiggles? Maybe. Understand the meaning those funny lil squiggles are intended to convey? Being able to put on paper (or in electronic “ink”) some funny lil squiggles that actually contain meaning with any clarity at all? It’s a crapshoot for college grads nowadays.

Sidebar: given the evidence of swelling illiteracy in our society, it seems obvious that spending billions and billions of dollars to add administration jobs to “education” doesn’t appear to be improving education.

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I Post These Kinds of Things Because You’re Slacking Off

The problem with self-pub? Whole HERDS of 20-something illiterate liberal arts graduates “writing” books for a “readership” of their peers. The sheer depth of their cultural, historical and LITERARY illiteracy (grammar atrocities, word misuse, COMPLETE misunderstanding of background and usage of common expressions, etc., etc.) is mind-boggling. It’s too late to lobotomize them. They’ve already done such a good job on themselves, already.

(Yes, there are a few who actually either know how to use a dictionary and form moderately coherent sentences. . . or else have gone outside their cohort and enlisted the aid of the rare literate proofreader/editor to clean up their glurge.)

Yeh, yeh. Dylan Thomas said it best (though about a different kind of death): “Rage, rage against the dying of the light. . . ” *heh*

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Lobotomized Morning Yaks

I do NOT watch AM TV. . . well, I do not, as a general rule. But. Well, my Wonder Woman is off work today and so morning TV (completely absent anything appropriate for Memorial Day, of course) is on. Blonde Bimbo is attempting to channel her inner 13-year-old “Valley Girl,” complete with the “Listen to me Do I sound stupid or what?” inflections and Robin’s Egg Blue nail polish.

*gagamaggot*

I pointed out the nail polish to my Wonder Woman (school librarian, so look out for the pun). She told me that when she sees girls with blue nail polish she takes their hands and says something like, “Oh, honey, we have to work on your circulation, because your fingers are turning blue!”

*heh*

The Blonde Bimbo Valley Girl on GMA yaks like the circulation problem has caused even deeper problems with her lobotomy. . .

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For Most Things, Brains are Better than Muscles

Even if it means just being smart enough to know when to quit.

Example: Moving a piano.

When the right equipment is used and the piano is properly prepared for the move, two (reasonably healthy) guys are all that’s needed, but heaven help folks trying to move a piano w/o the proper equipment and mental “muscle,” because physics surely will not. My last “piano move” 20 years ago: good equipment, me, a 12-y.o. boy and a 14-y.o. girl (both a couple of standard deviations above the mean and able to take direction very well). Moved the piano out and loaded into truck. Arrival at destination? It took me and three inexperienced guys who apparently were not as bright as my two kids to move it in and set it up. ‘S’truth.

Nowadays, I’m smart enough to know that–at my age and physical condition–hiring someone would be better, because despite knowing how to move one, I’m just getting to be too old for the gig. *sigh*