"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
On being thankful for little things. . .
I am thankful. . . that I spent $0.00 for a book that starts with a sentence that is first person, present tense, and moves on to a second sentence that is present tense, passive voice. Why am I thankful I spent $0.00? Because I can send it to the bit recycler with no remorse whatsoever, and because I feel no desire, need, or obligation to subject myself to the lousy writing.
Moving on. MUCH better things to spend “eye time” on.
Yeh, I said it, and I mean it.
Grammar is the internal logic of a language. Deriding those who espouse good grammar and point out bad grammar is equivalent to deriding logic, indeed reasoning.
Most who vomit up stupid comments about “grammar Nazis” also claim English is inconsistent and illogical in its grammar and, indeed, in its spelling of words, massive numbers of words that either look (when written) or sound alike but mean different things, etc. *meh* That’s either because they are butt-lazy illiterates or want to encourage butt-lazy illiteracy for their own nefarious purposes.
Understanding the internal logic of English (its grammar) requires something more than a “literacy” comprised of the ability to laboriously puzzle out what words those funny lil squiggles are and assign (often incorrect) simplistic meanings to them; it requires the reading of a lot (no, much more than you think “a lot” means!) of well-written text, an interest in what the words in that text actually mean or meant when the writer committed them to paper, and a cultivated ability to actually think.
Those three conditions are not met by at least 99.999. . .n% of the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind who are the primary corrupters of English nowadays. Let one very small example from a CNN chiron this morning stand as a typical example. Referring to Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe:
“. . .his own party said they will move to impeach him if he didn’t [sic] resign by the deadline.”
When someone cannot even keep past-present-future clear, one is safe to assume that that “someone” is a self-made moron. And such is the nature of the influence on the English language that the Hivemind exerts: teaching a-rational thought processes, by inundation with example after example.
Sidebar: when in soi-disant “adult” company, I do sometimes become a wee tad irritated by neo-Victorian Bowdlerizers who define anything that offends their po’ widdle feewings as “cussing.” *meh* It’s my curse just barely more than literate. . . unlike the neo-Victorian Bowdlerizers who are almost universally very nearly illiterate.
N.B. Sometimes a vulgar term is the best term to describe something/someone. Just sayin’.
It’s Thanksgiving season, but I’m trying to keep a grateful mindset as much as I can at more than just this season.
Here’s one: Thankful to live in America’s Third World County™ in spite of the town’s lazy, dishonest, incompetent, nepotism-riddled public “works” department. *heh* The rest of the county balances those dishonest morons out very well. 😉 (Working on 3rd week with almost no water flow–neighbors as well. Took the threat of involving an alderman again, like the last time, when it still took more than a month for them to do a bad job, repair hasn’t lasted any better than the last four before, and they failed to properly backfill their excavation.)
It’s funny, but of all the cutting boards I have, the two I use almost every day (one for meats and another for veggies–that one IS every day) are a couple I made in shop class 53 years ago (or was it 54? *heh*).
One (the solid mahogany board) was a Xmas gift to my paternal grandmother, and family “put it in my pile” when she passed away 37(?) years ago. The other (walnut and maple) was a Xmas gift to my mom, and she left it with me about 28 years ago when she was paring things down for a move.
While I have–and have had over the years–others, these serve almost all my needs quite handily, and have worn very very well over the years.
simple things, but real favs.
Because I’m lazy, I like one pan meals. Here’s one we had this evening. Good eats. Note the amounts given, and adjust however you like. *heh*
Take
Some smoked “cocktail sausages”
Some cubed and cooked (boiled) potatoes
Some chopped bell pepper and onion
Some fresh or frozen green peas or other veggie you like (I’ve done this dish with other meats and other veggies; tonight was green peas)
a few eggs, beaten together with some *heh* heavy cream
Some shredded cheese. Tonight I used a packaged cheddar/monterrey jack mix
Some freshly ground pepper
Start warming the lil sausages in a medium-heat pan (~285F). They’ll release enough of their oily goodness to saute the onions and bell pepper (other peppers, garlic, etc. are also good in this–use what you have and like). add the potatoes and let them start browning. Dump in the peas (or other veggies), top with cheese and then pour the beaten egg/heavy cream mixture over it. Cover and let it go for five minutes or so before you turn the heat down a bit. Takes about 15 minutes.
If you started this in a cast iron pan, you could put it in a 325F oven for that 15 minutes, uncovered, instead of leaving it on top of a burner. Nice browning of the cheese and a wee tad more “crusty” from the potatoes. Also good.
Different tastes, different ingredients, different temps and pans, as you wish. It’s still fritata-like delish-dish.
Wanna use leftover hash browns instead of cubed potatoes? I don’t know where one could get leftover hash browns, but sure. It’d be good. Leftover rice instead or potatoes? Also good. Easy-peasy, quick and filling. Delicious. Just Good eats.
Maybe.
Well, no: probably. If you use it to access social media sites (FarceBook, et al) or any Google service, almost certainly. Heck, there are growing claims that smartphones “listen in” to conversations happening within access of the phone’s mic, like so-called “smart” TVs do.
So?
I’ve worked with computers/networking, etc., for ~30 years and am certainly no Luddite, but my phone stays OFF (and usually in another room) when I am not making calls. I check it now and again for messages from any whitelisted folks, and (very rarely, and only when I’m away from a desktop/notebook/large format tablet–which is very, very rarely, since I almost always have one of the three at hand) I might use it to check something on the web, but only when locked down fairly well and using a strong VPN, while on a local network I trust to be well locked down, as well. I see no reason to let a phone run my life or be connected to any old whomever who might want to contact me.
Other phone “tracking” things?
I don’t need GPS. I’m not helpless or “directionally challenged.” I know how to read a map, can navigate with or without (usually) a compass, and check my routes before heading out anywhere I’ve not been before.
Yes, I got lost once (on an overcast day, on a system of rural gravel roads and two-tracks in rough terrain, off my projected area of travel for that day–no excuse, since I simply left my compass and map for the area behind that day). I stopped and asked directions (because I’m also not completely stupid).
I like the convenience of having computers, tablets, cell phones, etc., but unlike many I know nowadays who would probably be pleased as punch to have their dumb “smart” phone embedded in their body, wired to display in their field of vision, etc., I think I can handle a lil disconnection now and then.
Frequent readers (OK, the frequent reader *heh*) here have seen me refer to “the voices in my head.” They’re not really there, at least not as delusional thoughts. But I do “overhear” arguments with myself, and I imagine that’s something Kierkegaard, at least, could have related to. But I do hear strange, distracting, annoying, and sometimes painful sounds.
Tinnitus is a real PITA.
One of the most irritating things about tinnitus is the way it seems to effect a distraction to certain frequencies, at least as I experience it, in effect covering over certain pitches. Other freqs, higher and lower? Nope.
So, I can be sitting quietly playing a game of “Zen Freecell”1 with all the “tintinnabulation of the bells, the bells, the bells” ringing and roaring in my head, and yet a clock ticking in the next room impinges on my subconscious and I find myself CLICKing and making moves with a steady one second rhythm. Once I realize I’ve been caught again, I can then not do so, but that “tick-tick-tick. . . ” in the other room still hounds me.
1“Zen Freecell” is just regular old everyday Windows Freecell played as near as possibly in a mindless state. My current scores on each computer where I do that for relaxation (in place of “meditation”) are each above 8,800 games played with no losses. It’s just patterns. It’s a bit like seeing the solution to an equation without performing the intervening steps, only with “Zen Freecell” the steps have to be taken even though the solution’s a foregone conclusion.
Peanut butter. Love the stuff, but so many “store-bought” peanut butters are unreasonably high in carbs. . . because of added sweeteners. Sure I can buy a peanut-only, no additives, peanut butter, but NOT adding anything to peanuts is more expensive than adding crap to peanuts. Oh, and I have made my own in the past using a food processor, but I’m too lazy for that now, so. . .
Cashew butter. ~1/3 the carbs, and tastes just as good as peanut butter to me. Yep. Tried that and like it. Or, freeze-dried peanut butter powder. Just add a lil water and stir. Also 1/3 the carbs, and tastes really good. Like it. No more expensive than ordinary peanut butter, either, so winner? Yeh, but not available in crunchy. *sigh* Oh, well.
(Still, over six inches in waistline reduction with no significant weight loss. Means losing fat and retaining muscle. A good thing.)
I’ve used various techniques to devise memorable passwords and pass phrases over the years that are easy for me to recall but nevertheless fairly strong.
Here’s one (though it’s not currently active for ALL my password use).
Password construction: Take a song that’s at least 400 years old and uses an archaic form of the language in which it was written. Pick the third (or fourth, or whatever “interior) verse. Sing it backwards. Use the words in this backwards order to construct a password using the second (or third, or whatever; choose at semi-random) letter in each word. Use a number representing which letter of the words, when sung as written, you are using as a part of the embedded “key” to the password. Add at least two symbols that remind you of the site or app you assign the password to and “key” them to the site or app visually or audibly–whichever is a stronger memory gift for you.
Frankly, this is a bit difficult to do for folks who have neither an extensive repertoire of Renaissance (or older) music and lack both a good audial memory and the ability to sing/play something backwards, but it’s fun for those who do. . . or at least for me.
*shrugs*
For added complexity, one can take the reversed song and invert the tune, using the letter names of the resultant tune in the password.
Singing a song inverted and backwards, silently as in one’s mind’s ear, in order to extract the password makes me smile, so it’s worth it even if I have to type 60 or more characters.
Don’t do this for a WiFi password for your local network, though. Other folks will probably get lost trying to type it in and give up. Wait. No, DO use this for a WiFi password. It’ll really cut down on traffic. *heh*
OR. . . just use something like Lastpass to generate and “remember” your passwords, if something like this seems like too much work. You lazy bum.