Category: FWIW

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Could This Be Part of the Reason…

…that “Choom” Obama-Soetoro seems rather… dim? “57 states (so far)” “Austrian language” “corpse man” and on and on and on: examples of why maybe Cwazy Unka Joe seems to him to be a fitting running mate? Could “Choom” Obama-Soetoro’s obvious dimness be related to his doper habits as an adolescent?

“Cannabis smoking ‘permanently lowers IQ'”

“Researchers found persistent users of the drug [marijuana], who started smoking it at school, had lower IQ scores as adults.

“They were also significantly more likely to have attention and memory problems in later life, than their peers who abstained.

“Furthermore, those who started as teenagers and used it heavily, but quit as adults, did not regain their full mental powers, found academics at King’s College London and Duke University in the US.”

I’ve had problems for several years–well, since 2007, at least–understanding or believing the assertions of The Zero’s brilliance, because of the observable evidence of his words and deeds. Frankly, apologies in advance to those I’m about to insult, I’ve met smarter parrots. (See? There I go insulting parrots *sigh* When will I ever learn?)

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FB Rumors and Scaremongering

Deer season approaches, and here in the Ozarks that’s a VERY BIG DEAL. Saw/heard some FB scaremongering about the Bluetongue Virus (“BTV”) in deer–folks worried about what that might mean and/or warning people about it: safe to hunt, eat venison? What?

*feh* I felt like saying, “See that search bar in your browser? USE IT!!! (Well, actually, my thoughts were a bit more derogatory *heh*)

http://www.cfsph.iastate.edu/FastFacts/pdfs/bluetongue_F.pdf

(Note that I posted the link in the clear to give you fair warning that it’s a pdf file. Don’t use Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it, mmmK? Oh, I scanned the file and it’s OK, but not all pdfs are, and AAR is notoriously full of security holes for malicious folks to exploit.)

Check with the CDC and the USDA as well, if you doubt Iowa State University… though the pdf was linked by the USDA. *heh*

The takeaway, for folks who

    a. are willing to trust me to be honest with my sources
    b. have read this far

From the linked pdf:

Can I get bluetongue?
No. Bluetongue is not a significant
threat to human health.

and, from a USDA page,

“Humans do not play a role in the transmission of the bluetongue virus, either as mechanical or biological vectors. The exception to this is via poor management practices such as using contaminated needles or equipment.”

That is, don’t inject infected blood into your own bloodstream, and don’t cut yourself while processing an infected carcass and get its blood in your wound. *duh* Those are just commonsense behaviors, period. Heck, most sources, from the University of Vermont to te Brtish health services to the University of Queensland–resources all over the world–simply say it’s NOT A PROBLEM FOR HUMANS.

Infection via meat products? Notaproblem. HEAT KILLS THE VIRUS, silly scaremongers.Blood-to-blood–and a susceptible host! (which most sources say MUST be ruminants–bovine or ovine: in those families somewhere) seems to be the only possible way it can be transmitted (which is how the animals are infected: midge bites from midges already carrying infected blood from another animal. Those midges are sooooo messy in their food habits… although none of the sources I have read have indicated humans can also be infected by those same midges. *shrugs* I’d still wear an unscented insect repellent).

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It Takes All Kinds…

He does this frequently–butting his head up against some stationary object & dozing off. It’s the head-butt thing that strikes me.

*shrugs* Oh, well. He’s a cat, and cats rarely need any kind of reason for anything they do.

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Rubber

No, get your mind outa the gutter. LC Aggie Sith recommended Rubber as a movie that’s “so bad it’s good,” so… I watched it. Mini-spoilers, perhaps, follow:

Little things give it a “fail” in the supposed American ambiance the director was going for. Example: kid, when asked “Don’t you have some homework to do?” responded, “I’m on holiday”–not typical Americanism (which would’ve been “vacation” not “holiday”). It’s replete with other failures of detail (“Sheriff” morphing to “Lieutenant” etc.) that would probably pass with a European audience but any semi-conscious American viewer with more than two active brain cells would immediately recognize this as the product of a foreign mindset.

Still, as an attempt at absurdity, it’s almost successful. Enjoyed it somewhat. I loved the scene where the “sheriff” removed a tire from his vehicle and… the wheel was magically gone; only the tire remained. There are so very many of these minor little things that the primary disconnect from a rational world seems trivial by comparison.

If you’re in the mood for some senseless gore, it’ll do the trick for you. You’ll likely recognize at least one B Movie actor (there are a couple or three *heh*) in the whole flick, and no he doesn’t play “Robert”. *heh*

Continue reading “Rubber”

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Fun, Fun, Fun (’til My Daddy Takes the T-Bird Away… )

Well, maybe not that kind of fun, but not bad, nonetheless.

The re-roofing of twc central (RW) is progressing. Minor setback. Make a short story long(er):

Installing metal panels over the existing asphalt shingles: use 1″x4″ purlins over the shingles, screwed into the deck and joists below, metal panels installed on the purlins.

OK, no biggie, except… 1x4s at local hardware-cum-mini-lumber yard, or even at Lowes: WTF?!? That much?!? Nuh-uh, baby. Further away than local hardware-cum-mini-lumber yard store but closer than Lowes “fell off the back of a truck lumber yard”: reasonable, but… The store was way low on 1x4s but had a pot load of 10′ 2x4s for $2 each. Rip ’em down the middle? Nominal 1x4s. Close enough. Bought a passel of ’em; brought ’em home and began ripping ’em up.

Table saw died. *sigh* OK, replaced table saw (much faster than repairing the old one, although I have that in my hip pocket for a later mini-project: repair and sell) and began ripping again. Smooth move. I’m still under the cost of 1x4s at Lowes (let alone the “cat’s back-riding” local hardware-cum-mini-lumber yard) and have replaced a slowly-decaying power tool.

Still to go: installing the safety anchors (which I will be leaving on the roof permanently), the purlins and then the steel. Working on the first two on that list today, until the heat drives me off the roof.

The most fun thing in all this, so far, is that I’ve not done anything quite this physically demanding for the better part of two decades, and while I have the typical muscle aches–and my constant “Olde Pharte’s joint aches, etc.–to contend with, so far the pain’s all of the good kind: I can actually feel the good I’m doing myself. Like it.

Most UNfun thing so far: the buckets of sweat. Oh, it’s not all that bad in some ways, but having a puddle literally pour out of my sunglasses onto some work I’m doing is annoying, although at least that clears the puddle of sweat out of my field of vision. *heh* Playing in the attic (to replace a gas vent that needed replacing before the roofing went on) was interesting–like being in a low-ceilinged, stuffy sauna. Temps outside were 106F and in the attic? On fire, man. Going back into the unconditioned, ambient temp, garage from the attic? Felt like air conditioning. Chilly, dude.

As is Tradition for men in my family for carpentry or mechanicking work (going back as far as my paternal great-grandfather, at least), I have already offered a Blood Sacrifice to the Handyman Spirit. Yeh, yeh: I neglected to put my gloves on before moving the steel panels from where they were off-loaded to a better place for beginning to feed them up to the roof. Blood Sacrifice… What does not kill me hurts like the dickens for a while (and then fades into the background of a world of hurt *heh*), then heals… or not (so far all my past “Handyman Spirit Blood Sacrifice” wounds have healed, for various values of “heal” :-)).

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I am So Behind the Times

Thank God!

Flipboard is apparently THE “killer app” in some demographics for iPad, iPhone and Android phones. Here’s what the app has to say for itself (OK, via developers’ plug):

Flipboard brings together world news and social news in a beautiful magazine.

Flipboard’s award-winning experience lets people see everything in one place. By bringing together the world’s stories and life’s great moments, you can stay up to date with the things that matter most. Flip through the news from your Twitter timeline as well as from outlets like the BBC, USA Today and The Verge. See everything from posts and photos shared by friends on Facebook and Instagram to videos from Stephen Colbert and pop culture nuggets from Rolling Stone. Find inspiration for your travel, style and life from places like National Geographic, Oprah and Cool Hunting.

It’s the one thing to simplify your daily life. Bring Flipboard on the train during your morning commute, catch up over coffee or on vacation, use it as a tool at work or simply to wind down your night.

Talk about damning itself in the eyes of anyone with more than two active brain cells. Absolutely nothing listed above is worth aggregating into an electronic magazine experience, unless one’s goal in life is to make oneself stupid(er). If auto-lobotomy is one’s goal, then the “benefits” of Flipboard are manifold. If one instead wants to preserve a few brain cells for actual thought, then it would seem that avoiding the things touted above would be a Very Good Thing. (OK, with highly filtered and limited use, Facebook and National Geographic could be less brain damaging than the other things listed, but FB is filled with crap and NG has been degraded to barely better than just another Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind propaganda organ. *sigh*)

Thanks, Flipboard, but I’ll pass. Aging brains need to be stimulated with information that’s not toxic cotton candy in order to preserve mental capacities as much as possible.

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Oh, Well…

Since the materials list to re-roof our home come in at roughly half what I had feared (that’s the danger of physically going to the manufacturer’s plant and personally getting a bid for materials *heh*), it looks like the roofing project is on for this summer.

Oh, well. At least I get to buy some cool tools and equipment to make the job go faster/safer. ILIWAPCT, don’t you?

Looks like it’s time to start rounding up the crew… 😉

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together. 🙂

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Running Lat(er)

*heh* So “Spring Cleaning” got out of hand and has run on into “Summer Cleanup” with bags of clothes and unused furniture making their way to charity and boxes of “stuff” still being sorted with discoveries of tools, electronic equipment, as-yet unread books and scads of other stuff floating to the surface out of storage areas to be sorted into Keep-Give Away-Toss piles. Oh, and meanwhile tons of lil (and some not so little) landscaping/yard jobs that’ve been *cough* “deferred” for some time resulting in more summer sun than I’ve seen for a few years… and bunches of home made charcoal, etc.

But it’s kinda fun to turn up lil gems like this from time-to-time:

Of course, I don’t really use the mouse pad attachment–or some clumsy wired mouse–with the device, but the picture is otherwise a decent representation.

Beats the socks off the other labeling measures we’ve been taking. The thing’s been packed away for more than a decade, unused–never used! (Ordered it just before a major “event” in our lives and just never got around to using it. *shrugs* Casio is still selling the thing and has even updated the software for 64-bit Windows.)

What with all the “lost” tools I now have to integrate with some tools gleaned from a barter deal earlier this summer, the garage cleanup is also looking more and more urgent. *heh*

Need to get all this sorted out before things cool down enough to put on a new roof and paint the siding, though. Now those lil chores should be loads of fun!

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Fun Lil Micro-Mini Project

To make a short story longer…

I have an area of our back yard* I’ve mentally designated for a future backyard* garden. Right now, I’m burning wood trash there, in a small pit I’ve dug–limbs, small trees I’ve removed and even good sized logs from a mimosa tree I’ve long hated.

Oh, the lil micro-mini project? Making charcoal in (very) small batches. I get a good fire going and then when it’s burned down a bit I shovel dirt and ashes over the burning wood until I blanket out even traces of smoke. Next day, I uncover the charcoal that’s been created and put it in a steel container until I’m absolutely sure there are no live coals still left, then into a covered plastic bucket.

Oh, the charcoal? For a very small earth-sheltered forge I plan on putting in the same small pit for use turning some old files and lawnmower blades into knives. (I’ve already annealed the files/lawnmower blades to make them soft enough to work… in earlier woodpile burns. :-))

Waste not, want not.

🙂

 

 

 

 

Note the difference. While I may seem (or even be) pedantic, it’s for good cause. I keep reading things on the web–and even in books that’ve been through the whole nine yards of traditional publishing, including editors, proofreaders and the like–that use “backyard” and “backseat” and other such adjectives as though they were nouns. It chaps my gizzard. The distinction is a useful one and should not be abandoned by the illiterati of contemporary writers simply because they’re too butt lazy to be well-read.

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I Really Need to Ameliorate My Tinnitus

Sometimes it’s so distracting I mishear background stuff. For example, a TV commercial I heard as,

“Introducing the evil 4G“

The sheer noise level of the tinnitus is really that distracting a times.

I don’t watch much TV. This was while sharing some “being there” time while my Wonder Woman was watching one of the (very, very) few TV shows she watches via our cable subscription.

Evo 4G