Category: Fun Stuff

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Yólly Yöker

Sometimes I ponder God’s nature and think his nature as Love includes a lot that some folks don’t normally consider to be “love”–primarily, I think, because of their own poor concept of love. Consider God’s “tough love” as but one example (and yes, examples of really tough love abound in scripture). But his nature as Love is often made manifest, to me at least, in my perception (I certainly hope it’s not a sort of eisegesis) of His sense of humor. I mean, really–look around you at nature, at people. If this is a created order, it could only have been created by the Ultimate Jolly Joker.

Just consider how this might affect science. IF God had desired to do so, He could certainly, since He’s Omnipotent, have created all the evidence geologists, astrophysicists and biologists rely on for their various theories about the age of the Earth and the universe, and the various theories of evolution of life and intelligence.

*meh* It’s an amusing possibility. Oh, it doesn’t make any difference to me in determining my own views of various theories of real science, but I do grin a bit and even sometimes throw this monkey wrench in the works when I run into folks who treat theories of evolution, the age and nature of the universe, etc. as dogma in their Cult of Scientism-y Pseudo-Thinking. And maybe that’s one of God’s best jokes: giving people like me monkey wrenches to throw into the works of neo-paganistic cultic dogma.

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Life Hacking

With some modification, noted in [], I’d like to start with a comment from a How to be a Hacker site:

The hacker mind-set is not confined to [a] software-hacker culture. There are people who apply the hacker attitude to other things, like electronics or music — actually, you can find it at the highest levels of any science or art. Software hackers recognize these kindred spirits elsewhere and may call them ‘hackers’ too — and some claim that the hacker nature is really independent of the particular medium the hacker works in.

I’m among those who embrace the universality of hackerdom. 😉 “What would happen if I kludged together X and Y to do Z?” is the kind of question any hacker might ask, in any medium. Basically, it’s just tinkering with stuff to make whatever it is more useful, better in its primary application or applicable to something unintended by its original creator. (And, of course, ALL these things can be done well or poorly, for good or ill.)

So, I “hack” every recipe I come across. I “hack” my car (something that was called “shade tree mechanicking” in days of yore *heh*) and I extend that tinkering to darned near everything I interact with.

Case in point, a simple “hack” performed on a very, very nice knife given to me by my Lovely Daughter and her Redoubtable Husband. A very nice Ka-Bar knife, frankly even better than the WWII version I had on hand from a great uncle who used it for many years skinning deer. This is a seriously nice knife, but. . . it had two very, very small–minuscule even–things I thought could be improved by a very, very simple hack. Lovely blade; the guard was just right; the full tang hand with stacked leather plugs was perfect; but the pommel had two extremely small flaws to my eye: a small gap where the tang and pommel joined and another very small depression where a pin passed through the pommel and tang to secure them together.

Simple, less than 5 minute hack: mixed some JB Weld and filled the very small gap and depression, smoothed the JB Weld level with the surrounding surface and I’m now a happy camper. The JB Weld is even almost exactly the same color as the pommel.

Bonus knife hack:

When you need to tune up the edge on a knife but for some inexplicable reason do not have an appropriate stone, steel or ceramic sharpener available, turn that ceramic coffee mug in your hand over (WHAT?!? You say you don’t have a ceramic coffee mug at hand? Get outa here! I have no further use for you! *heh*). There on the bottom of your ceramic coffee mug you will likely see an unglazed ring of ceramic. Yep. It’s just like a ceramic sharpening rod. Make sure it’s smooth so that you won’t create a problem on your blade and then just use that ring as though it were a ceramic sharpening rod.

There you have it: an easily tuned up edge from a coffee mug. You’re welcome.

Now, go forth and apply simple creativity to whatever little things are bugging you. Hack your life.

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Quick Tip from Your Friendly Handy Helper

So, if you’re out and about and need to jot down a note in your handy pocket notebook (which, of course you always have at hand, because electronic notes. . . well, we’ll just not go into that for now *heh*), but–*ack!* Pen’s out of ink! No pencil! *sigh*

Just eject a round from a spare magazine and write with the lead tip. You’re welcome.

(Note to NSA goons: Feel free to share this tip with HS thugs. I know you will anyway, so I’ll not get all torqued off about it. . . *sigh*)

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“Magnificent Devices”–Wow. Just Wow.

I allowed myself to get sucked into this four book collection the other day. Wow. So very well-written. Best “steam-punk world” I’ve experienced. VERY hard to put down. Engaging characters, good plotting, well-detailed descriptive narrative: just a Good Read.

Magnificent Devices

Now, if you saw my normal reading list, you might be surprised that I enjoyed this collection so much. Four short books (the whole collection doesn’t run much over 800pp) that were a really fun read. I immediately bought the next book, A Lady of Resources, and immediately devoured it. Yes, I enjoyed the entire collection and I will purchase the next book as soon as it’s available.

But why, pray, might you be surprised at my glowing commentary? Oh, well, these books are “juvies” (yeh, yeh, they call ’em “YA” books now, but since “juvenile” now extends to the late 20s–or later: most politicians are sociopathic juveniles, for example–and “young adults” are more likely to be 30-somethings anymore, I’ll just stick with “juvie” mmK? ;-)), and the ONLY reason I read juvies is because I enjoy sharing my Wonder Woman’s world. She’s a K-8 librarian and is very close with her readers. I suspect a very large portion of her enjoyment of juvie books is anticipation of interaction with her students about the books she reads WITH them. And I enjoy the well-written and well-edited ones for being able to share them with her. (Besides, they are invariably very, very quick reads and don’t disrupt my other reading hardly at all, so. . . *heh*)

OK, but these books are quite different. Yeh, yeh, I read the Percy Jackson stuff. *yawn* Well-written enough, but really quite pedestrian, boringly predictable. And yes, I read the J.K. Rowling things, despite being bored to tears after getting halfway through the first one. (Maybe I’m a bit picky, but then again maybe not. . . )

These books, though, are real gems. They’re just very, very well-written, with an excellent Victorian period feel melding well with the fictional steampunk universe, characters that are engaging and credible, ripping good stories, just. . . just Good Reads, regardless the genre or target audience. What’s even more surprising is that this very, very well-written prose and these very, very well-told stories are from the hand of a person with an actual B.A. in Literature AND an M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction–two things that, in my experience, tend to result in writers producing Suckitudinous Fiction. *heh* My hat’s off to Shelley Adina for developing REAL writing chops despite her academic credentials. 😉

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Fun, Fun, Fun

And there’s not even a T-Bird in sight.

Well, I got my mother online today and she sent her very first ever emails. Her 89th birthday celebration is tomorrow.

Fun.

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Gimme an “Accomplishment” Badge er Sumthin’

*heh*

Finally got around to replacing the master bath sink and faucet today. Not such a much; getting A Round To-it was the hardest part, really. Bummed me a wee tad that I couldn’t see my way to having the time all in one chunk to also rip up the counter and put some tile down that I have set aside for that space, but the new fixtures are still a major improvement over the 35-year-old fixtures that were original to the house. *meh* Finally got around to also installing shut-off valves for that sink’s faucet. Yeh, not a single plumbing fixture had shut-off valves as originally installed. . . and as it was when we purchased the place This is the next-to-last. I’ll pencil in some time to do the toilet in that bathroom in the next few days, and that’ll be the last.

Easy gig. Anyone not dumber than a bag of hammers can do it. (That leaves out most high school and college grads nowadays, of course. *sigh*)

Little by little I’m bringing this house not just up to current code but a wee tad beyond. Feels good. Wonder if I’ll live long enough to finish the work? *heh*

Benefits of being an Olde Pharte with juuuust a wee touch of swagger? While I was in the plumbing hardware section at Lowe’s, no one asked me if I needed any help. Good. Because I didn’t. 😉

N.B. Edited out a coupla typos. Left the ones I wanted. *heh*

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Dream Gig

Tour guide for America’s Third World County.

I took some time this a.m. and, persuading Son&Heir to come along, traveled some of the back roads of America’s Third World County. A few high points included going back over a road where I’d cleared out a fallen tree last Friday (was just noodling around, tree was blocking half the road, had me some fun moving it with Archimedes’ help ;-)–just checking to see if any local denizens had claimed the firewood), THE prettiest cemetery in the county and the edges of a nature conservation area.

Noodling around in the “piney woods” byways of America’s Third World County is just such a refreshing experience, methought a gig as a tour guide for the county would be an ideal gig. I mean, how many folks–even those who’ve LIVED here all their lives–know about that lil community cemetery out in the middle of nowhere, tucked into a hillside beside a rarely-graded dirt road? Wrought iron fencing with finials all around, always seemingly freshly mowed, well-kept, and with a neat lil gazebo tucked into one corner: just a lil gem.

And there are all sorts of lil gems all throughout the county–bluffs and caves (few of them well-explored–some apparently never explored!), pastures, woods, creeks and rivers, bridges, low-water crossings, high ridged two-tracks, winding hollows, forested cathedrals, gorgeous homes-hovels-dilapidated and abandoned structures: such variety and more. People groups? Amish, Somali, Hmong, Vietnamese, Latino, South Pacific Islanders, Blacks, Caucasians and more. And even within those groups, it seems that geography molds differences. Real Ozark hillbillies? We got ’em. Salt-of-the-earth farmers and ranchers? We got ’em. End-of-the-word survivalist compounds? We got ’em, too. Party gals and guys? Too many. And on and on and on. And unless the property’s posted with warnings, most of the folks are approachable and pretty darned friendly–and their dogs are too. 🙂

And you can be pretty safe betting they’re also well-armed. And that’s a good thing, IMO, because well-armed folks in America’s Third World County are almost always at the very least polite and helpful. They may want to know why one is approaching their door, but that’s OK, because if one is polite in return, interested in and appreciative of the area, they’ll almost always be a fount of neat information.

Tour Guide, America’s Third World County. It’d be fun.

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Benign Neglect Gardening

Well, not really. More of a “lazy-faire” *heh* approach to lawn care.

For some few years now, I’ve let about 1/3 of the back yard go more or less natural. Oh, a large section gets string trimmed to whack down any grass and weeds sticking above the “yard vine” I’ve been trying to encourage to spread (it’s working! :-)), and the “possum grape” vines sometimes threaten to choke things out (not a bad thing, since I almost always have some to pull down, cut back and use to make some fine charcoal out of the woody remains :-)), but one particular joy has been “The Boys’ corder.”

Before The Boys (Son&Heir’s dogs) ran off to dog heaven (RIP, guys!), I really encouraged the grape vine to grow over the fencing in the SW corner of the yard. Yeh, it provided a visual shield from the view of a neighbor’s large storage shed, but it also provided some great shade for The Boys in the dog days of summer. After they were gone, I just continued weed whacking that corner to cut down grass and weeds but took moderate care to NOT cut down anything that looked interesting like. . .

hollyhock
Not our back yard. A pic of our hollyhock may come soon.

Been keeping an eye on our volunteer hollyhock for a couple of years now. It finally bloomed just recently.

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Streaming TV

Seriously considering dropping the TV portion of our cable service. Oh, my Wonder Woman would have to delay watching some of her shows–on Hulu or some such. But for the most part, the TV I’ve been enjoying recently has been stuff streamed on Amazon Prime (*whispered* or downloaded from YouTube *heh*) like Top Gear or various BBC “cop” shows or Amazon’s offering of “Under the Dome”–a new episode each Friday*.

Mostly, my leisure “entertainment” budget (time and $$) is consumed by books, but it’s nice to have a wide variety of interesting TV, movies, etc. The only thing is watching my bandwidth consumption, since my cable provider has put a cap on all users–yeh, different caps for home and business users, but caps all the same.

*Yeh, it’s a CBS show, and I don’t watch CBS, but since it’s w/o the commercials and CBS doesn’t get my bandwidth, I’m letting this one slide by my boycott (of not watching CBS). Gray area. *heh*

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Ah! Life’s Little Pleasures!

After years of using an “old tech” 12-volt NiCad battery-powered string trimmer and suffering through the NiCad woes (finicky recharge cycles, maintenance difficulties during storage, progressive battery “senility” *heh* etc.), I’ve been enjoying some backyard cleanup using the new 20-volt Li-ion battery-powered string trimmer my Wonder Woman got me as a Fathers Day present. Really sweet.

Now, next on my list is the companion polesaw that uses the same battery packs. That would ease some of the tree trimming I need to do, and even cut down on the amount of ladder and climbing gear use for most of it.

Continue reading “Ah! Life’s Little Pleasures!”