Category: FWIW

Or I’ll not. Tired, a cold. I may live, but if not… It’s a win-win. *heh*

Worked on Son&Heir’s car Sunday afternoon, when it never broke freezing, then the next day, took a quick (~-500 mile round trip) jaunt to visit with my parents. Good visit. In their late eighties. They have a full life–filled with friends and lots of service activities centered around their church (and tripe to various doctors, of course). Mother’s a Reader (just try to keep her from the library! Try it… *heh*). Daddy’s still making music and “directing”–though it’s his Sunday School department he directs nowadays. Interesting people.

While my dad and I spent most of the time “visiting” around his computer, integrating more techie toys into his life, for the most part, my Wonder Woman and Mother spent just visiting or sharing some quiet time with their noses in their respective books.

Some good time spent at the breakfast and dinner table (and in the kitchen). Back home in America’s Third World County, now. We may not be able to share many more days like that, so it was good to share these. A nice Christmas-time interlude.

Update#5: Well, 10 days late, it’s here. BTW, that “10 days late” is a generous estimate from the PO’s own records showing when it first received the package, reluctantly confirmed by PO customer “service” person “Grace”(less). Any attempt to compensate me for the PO’s graceless, disgusting lack of service? Of course not. Any apology for sitting on the package for at least 10 days, scanning and re-scanning it but NOT simply putting it on the truck for delivery? Of course not!

*sheesh* Any wonder I hate the normative union “workers” found in POs? (Our local gals were a bit sheepish when I told ’em the circumstances. I told them I was very sorry they worked at the sharp end of the stick for such a disgustingly mickey mouse operation.)

Update#4: Gee, after doing some more cage-rattling at USPS and Fedex, amazingly, the USPS says it’s finally “processed” the package it’s been sitting on for nine days. Shipped on December 1st. Been in USPS hands for 9 days now–10 if one were to accept the word of the first “customer service representative” from the USPS I talked to today–languishing in a PO center 90 miles away. Maybe, maybe, it’s finally on its way here. But I’ll probably not know anything until Monday. My paternal grandfather worked for the post office before it became the “postal service”. He’d probably have a few choice words to say about now were he still around… And Congress and The Zero want another bunch organized by the federal government to manage health care? “Yeh, he’s been in the emergency room for 10 days now. We should get him ‘processed’ by tomorrow or the next day or whenever. He may have bled out by then, but we’ll deliver the corpse.”

Update #3: As of 12-17-10, according to “Grace”–laughingly called a “customer service representative” at the USPS–the USPS acknowledges receipt of the package on 12-7-10 (?!?) and shows NO information on where it may be now. She said to call back tomorrow if it’s not here by 2:00 p.m. and the USPS will try to locate it. Of course, she wouldn’t even try today, because… she works for the Postal “Service”. And, also of course, our third world county post office closes at 10:30 a.m. on Saturdays, so what this really means is that Monday is the first time I can even check to find out if it’s been delivered or is somewhere becoming munchies for reindeer.

Update#2: As of 12-16-10, a Fedex phone rep asserts that Fedex has indeed tendered the package to USPS and I ought to have it by now. I’m assured that a Fedex rep will track down and let me know the score in the next couple of days. Imagine trying to do that with the USPS. I’d probably have to wait til the 12th of Never to get a callback.

Update: As of 12-15-10, my package, according to USPS is nowhere, mon frere:

——————————————————————————–
Electronic Shipping 12/07/10
Info
Received
——————————————————————————–

Although Fedex says,

Dec 8, 2010 6:14 AM
At U.S. Postal Service facility
KANSAS CITY, KS
Tendered to U.S. Postal Service for delivery – Allow one to two additional days for delivery

Now, which one do you believe?

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A very good, and in today’s economic climate probably essential, approach to take toward life in general, but sometimes it’s a pain in the neck (by “pain in the neck” you may take me to indicate that the pain is somewhere much lower down on one’s anatomy). Take for example the “free” shipping option at Amazon.com on orders that exceed $25.

Nice, but. (No, not “Nice butt!”) They’ve taken to shipping certain of those “free” shipping orders by Fedex “Smartpost” which would be all right I suppose but for one irritating factor: USPS. Yeh, Fedex delivers to USPS which then applies the marvelous efficiency of the Post Office system to slowing down the delivery of the package.

I’ve had a package just sitting in Kansas City for five days now. And the post office delivery system can’t seem to find a record of anything about it save for the fact that it’s been electronically informed by Fedex that they are to receive a package.

OTOH, Fedex says it’s left the package with the PO twice, so…

Oh, for the days when we used to get calls from Fedex asking where the heck we were, asking for directions to our house, or even for the days of an even earlier time when we had to call Fedex to ask ’em how they’d missed us since we were here when they supposedly tried to deliver, then giving directions to the lost driver. At least in those days we got our packages in a far more timely fashion.

But in these days, putting up with PO inefficiency is still better than paying money we don’t have to pay for delivery, I suppose.

That’s just sound economic policy*. 🙂

But patience and deferred gratification are difficult virtues to practice at times.

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* As Poor Richard put it, “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

Note: yes, we do pay shipping costs when necessary, like for time-sensitive things such as course materials for one of my Wonder Woman’s courses. In that case, though, I really would prefer that some professors gave adequate notice of textbook requirements…

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I’ve been captured, recently, by the paraphrase of Romans 8:31-39, as found in the Scottish Psalter, “Let Christian faith and hope dispel,” particularly the last line of the first verse, which sets the tone for the entire song with its adherence to clear exegesis of its scriptural antecedent:

Let Christian faith and hope dispel
The fears from which we hide,
For who would dare oppose us now
That God is at our side?

Many people, reading their own agendas into Romans 8:31, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” argue that God is ON their side in some area of conflict. But the whole of Romans 8:31-39 is subject to its context especially but not only the eighth chapter of Romans, which makes it pretty clear that God is not so much ON the side of those who follow Him but AT their side to comfort, cheer, aid, encourage, etc., as they are on His side.

Big difference.

And this is especially important as those who are labeled–by the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind and even by themselves at times–the “religious right” assert their own “traditional values”. If those values are not clearly godly values, claiming that God is on their side passes hubris on into slander. I’d just caution such folks to be careful, to examine those “traditional values” (such a stupid term; whose traditions, specifically what values?) and only claim to be trying to seek godly values as those things they assert have solid scriptural basis.

Just an observation from an amateur armchair (yeh, the redundancy is necessary :-)) historian/theologian/social-political observer.

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BTW, this is the basis of just one of many reasons that Mike Huckabee gives me the heebie-jeebies. He cloaks his Phariseeism on political speech, but he just makes my skin crawl.

The presented argument by analogy is stronger than the initial simplistic (and shaky and, frankly, silly *heh*) argument asserting “proof” that “God is evil.”

Of course, both arguments must rest on earlier arguments for the existence of God which aren’t presented here. But that’s a much longer discussion. 🙂

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Note: the jury is out on whether or not Albert Einstein actually said this–different sites say yes and no, though I’ve yet to see it attributed to someone else–but I am almost 100% certain that the presentation of him having said it as a young student in argument with his teacher is pure fiction, presented as such for effect.

A screen shot of my somewhat cluttered (I need to offload some of the icons) Win7 desktop on this machine:

Yes, the background’s a pic of some of God’s most beautiful (and useful) flowers: dandelions.

I’ve got a little list… No, not that kind–really! No, this is a list of people now living that I’d like to meet and visit with, some to just have an enjoyable conversation and some to figuratively box their ears.

So, in no particular order of importance, today’s Top Ten People I’d Like to Meet and Have a Sit-Down With:

Jerry Pournelle: a very, very interesting guy. Smart, too. Well-informed and a decent conversationalist, from what I’ve seen of him on old Tom Snyder clips, etc.

Freeman Dyson: Gives “smart” a new level of meaning, beggars the word “genius”. A sit down with him would just be me asking questions and listening to whatever he might want to impart.

Here’s one I could actually manage: my Uncle Milton. Smart guy, very smart. Not a “Dyson”, but easily a “Pournelle-class” smart guy. Engaging conversationalist and all around Good Guy. OK, so I’ve already “met” him. He’s worth more than one meeting.

Barry Hussein Obama-Soetoro: a sitdown with this guy would entail me asking, “WTF? Who the HELL do you think you are, dumbass?” in various ways until I’d reduced him to vacuously (and disingenuously) whining about my racism or whatever. I’d spend most of the time figuratively beating him about the head and shoulders with the words and deeds of the Founders. What a maroon.

Sarah Palin: I’d really like to set her straight on a few things while encouraging her in other areas. In particular, I’d encourage her to become much more familiar with the Founders, because her conservatism seems to be mostly a social construct that’s mushy on fundamentals. Needs seasoning.

Nancy Pelosi: She’s not a particularly interesting person, but she definitely Needs A Spanking. Badly. Verbally or physically (no, wait, she might enjoy the latter, as she appears to be kinda kinky).

Paul Krugman: Well, not really. Now that Milton Friedman’s no longer around (d. 2006) to (verbally) take him to task for his vacuous economist pronouncements, it’d be hard to get him in a round-robin conversation with Friedman and enjoy watching him be demolished. Fatuous ass. Maybe just taking him out behind the woodshed would do…

Placido Domingo: It’s not just that I love his instrument and the way he uses it (much more than any other contemporary tenor) but that I truly enjoy watching him perform. I get the feeling I’d enjoy just visiting with him and, if he’d allow me, singing a simple duet just for fun.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau: Simply, IMO, one of the two most magnificent voices of the 20th Century–number 1 in my book on some days, barely edged to number 2 on others. A visit with him would include–in my dreams–at least a brief session of vocal coaching.

Fred Thompson: I’d like to box his ears for raising my hopes in 2008 and then dashing them so precipitously.

There, that’s my Top Ten People I’d Like to Meet and Have a Sit-Down With (again, in no particular order). There are others I might include on different days for different reasons (including one that’s “above” this mundane list), but those will do for now.

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No, I’m not linking to all of these folks. You can google (almost) any of them you’re unfamiliar wit yourself easily enough. 🙂

…just wanna know…

Watching “The Walking Dead” on A&E. I have to wonder why the birds and other critters that eat the bodies of the infected don’t become just more “walking (or flying or squirming) dead”.

Our children never really did much Halloween stuff. Our choice, but they didn’t suffer for it, as we made sure they had other opportunities to wear fun costumes, go to parties and gorge on candy. And we made sure, when they were older and not engaged in other parties/gorging on Halloween, that we had plenty of candy available to give out to the greedy lil waifs who came to our door, until…

Our final participation in the annual shakedown was when kids became coming by and demanding their extortion candy so rudely that we simply rebelled at supporting such barbaric behavior any more. “Give it to me!” delivered rudely by a little “girl” (apprentice Dhimmicrap, more like) in a princess outfit wasn’t the last straw, but it was one of the more memorable ones.

Nope. Not going there again. They can find someone(s) else to give them sugar highs and expand their parents’ dental bills.

OK, I can wait; I just don’t want to. But since I have to (wait on an order from Amazon.com, that is), I guess I can do it. *heh*

I have just enough saffron left to try this–popped amaranth seeds–in a mock paella/chicken dish, I think. If not, I suppose I can sub in tumeric for the look, though the flavor will be substantially different to saffron.

Neat thing: amaranth is higher in protein than rice (~28g/cup vs. ~13g/cup) and gluten-free, as opposed to almost all couscous or other mock-grain pastas also used for paellas (as well as being higher in protein). More? Also higher in resistant starch than the other alternatives.

Next, I’ll have to see about popping quinoa… Again, waiting. *heh*