. . .”the ancient boor” and “the ancient booer.” I think I have the first one down pat. The second one. . .
I’m Not a Luddite; I’m a Curmudgeon
The difference is that I like techy things, but I have my limits. I want them to work my way, and when they don’t I get a bit grumpy. *heh*
So, bought a couple of lil bluetooth “fitness trackers” that retail all over the place for about $50 each for $1 apiece at my fav “fell off the back of a truck store” (nah, closeouts, distressed sales, etc.) and discovered what, for me, is a lil “gotcha.” Yeh, the phone app closes in on “sucky.” I like keeping my phone off, so for reporting, etc., it’s turn on phone RE-pair the thing via my phone’s built-in functionality (cos the app from the mfg doesn’t “remember” that well), blah, blah,blah. Worse, the app won’t even pair with the device unless my phone has an internet connection!
Oh, well, I can put up with the rigamarole, and it is a fun lil toy for a buck. If I had paid anything close to retail, though, I’d not be real happy with the app.
It’s quite different to other things that I have paired with my phone, a decent set of stereo headphone, for example, that I use to listen to the music I have loaded onto the phone (nah, I prefer not streaming with the thing,and yeh, it’s just me *heh*). The headphones, I just turn on, start some music playing and it’s cool.
Update: Went back to the store and bought a $1 “fitness tracker watch” that does the same things with no need for a bluetooth connection of app for my phone. It also has a pulse monitor, which “sorta” makes up for the lack of a “gee whiz” app (that worked like a clunker).
Now, I’m Not a ‘Gun Nut,’ but. . .
. . .all the ignorant, emotional, lie-filled arguments by anti-gun, anarcho-tyrannist statists and wild, slavering, stupid calls for gun confiscation kinda irk me. In light of that, here: a .30-caliber, DIY, fully-automatic air rifle.
Make it in your garage. Completely unregulated, as far as I know, in any of the federal firearms laws, because: air rifle. It is not a firearm.
And that’s just if someone doesn’t decide to get their hands on various pieces of low-quality steel and emulate third world home “gunsmiths” the world around and manufacture themselves an AK-47, since it was designed for ease of low-tech reproduction, of download any one of the widespread sets of plans for making one’s own AR-15, go out along the highway collecting aluminum cans, forge and machine a receiver, etc.
Yeh, that very thing has been done by some guy in his own garage and back yard.
Idiots just irk me, and these willfully stupid, electively-ignorant, anti-gun, anarcho-tyrannist statists wildly screaming for gun confiscation, are just that: self-made idiots.
Oh, the “I’m not a gun nut” comment? Currently, entire “arsenal” consists of an 89-year-old revolver. I’d be happy with a couple more firearms, but right now, I just do not need them, and the lil revolver is enough for my current use. This is only possible, because I live in a county that is about as safe as Switzerland, probably because most folks are armed. *heh*
But.. . I will admit I am a “knife nut.” “Never bring a gun to a knife fight” might be something I would think, and even say. . . *heh* OK, just kidding. It’s always good to have both at hand in a “bad actor” scenario, but at or within arm’s length, I’m MUCH more likely to do serious damage with a knife, even with my teensy lil Spyderco Squeak Sprint1, a really, really small knife.
1Thanks again to my Estimable Son-in-Law. I use this knife–and those given to me by Son & Heir–daily, many many times daily.
From the Bard to the Beegees*. . .
Whenever someone says something like, “It’s just an argument about terms/meanings/definitions/semantics” I want to dope slap ’em. “Now there abide these three: phonemes, syntax and semantics; and the greatest of these is semantics.”
Meanings of words (terms, whatever) is the very POINT of language. Clarifying and making terms as nailed down and unambiguous, as full of MEANING, as possible is not something that is “just” anything. Without such, any interlocution is just “Sound and fury, signifying nothing,” or at least nothing useful.1
*From the Bard to the Beegees:
Polonius: What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words.
Polonius: What is the matter, my lord?
Hamlet: Between who?
Polonius: I mean, the matter that you read.
*heh*
Beegees: It’s only words,and words are all I have to take your heart away.
1Ah, reminds one of most contemporary “music,” the babblings of Mass MEdia Hivemind Podpeople, and Academia Nut Fruitcakes, doesn’t it?
It’s the Little Things #8,492
#sigh
*heh*
OK, now that that is out of my system. . .
Some of the absolutely stupid things some writers do baffle me, but at least I have found a way to be amused by them.
Recent “Dan Brown wannabe” book where the writer apparently felt even less desire to get anything right about any of his premises than Brown typically does went Brown even further by finding… unique ways to misuse plain English ( for example, misused “infallible” when groping for “unflappable”), have an “expert pilot” grab the “steering column”. . . on a helicopter whose propellers were making enough noise to keep the writer from thinking, “Maybe I ought to do my homework on helicopters before making a fool of myself in print.”
Hilarious.
Another? How about a fun-filled romp through a zombie apocalypse book filled with things like super-competent, manly-man hero filling up a late-model vehicle with gas and then “topping it off” after the pump clicks off. “Manly-men” know that can harm the vehicle’s evap system, cause the vehicle to run poorly, and even lead to hard starting or failure to start. In today’s world, it’s an easy fix (though sometimes complicated) to repair an evap system. . . IF one can narrow down the part or parts damaged by topping off, and costs can range from $10-$200, depending on several factors. In a zombie apocalypse scenario, having to repair the evap system on one’s go-to vehicle is sub-optimal.
But that’s OK, cos the book was chock full of this kind of stupid stuff, so reading it as a farce (OK, OK, skimming it, cos it wasn’t really worth reading *heh*) was. . . OK.
The problem with all these hilariously stupid books–not bad or “suckitudinous” books, just stupidly executed–is that the errors of logic, fact, grammar, punctuation, and usage they embody are just reinforced in whatever uncritical readers glom onto them. *sigh* There were once literate editorial staffs at tradpub houses to correct some of these problems, but even there, the quality of literacy in tradpub editorial staffs has waned.
Oh, well. At least I can laugh at and mock such things, and such amusement is worth something as the world generally goes to hell in a handbasket.
At Least THIS Illiterate Practice Is Still Deprecated
The occurrence of “try and [verb]” as against the correct “try to [verb]” in print in general is still minimal. Unfortunately, the #gagamaggot misuse of “and” still seems to be very common in (typically) very poorly edited self-pub text and in social media, etc., all over the increasingly “mass man”-dominated1 Internet.
Social democracy sometimes sucks.
Do note that I have no objection to the use of “try and” when it is genuinely appropriate and adds meaning. For example,
“Two Judges Try and Fail to Shut Down Union Strike” in a headline is OK, though in a sentence in the body of a text it would be better-written as, “Two judges try–and fail–to shut down union strike,” or, slightly less clear, “Two judges try, and fail, to shut down union strike.”
Or,
“It’s better to try, and regret, than not to try, and regret.”
In neither of the cases above would “try to” convey the meaning intended, but cases like this are rare compared to misuses of “try and” where “try to” is appropriate. Sadly, the colloquial misuse of “try and” contributes to a poorer language rather than enhancing English.
Leaving a Legacy
“Die, my dear? Why, that’s the last thing I’ll do!” ~ Groucho Marx.
Well, even in this life, I don’t plan on dying being the last thing I “do.” I plan to rig the “urn” (a coffee can, of course) designated for my cremains to prank the person who opens it to dump my ashes in. THAT’S the last thing I’ll do. . . from beyond the “fiery trial.” Well, unless someone in my family spoils the surprise. . . I probably need to have some backup pranks set up, just in case. Maybe I can stretch my “presence” out a few years that way. 😉 Kinda leave an active legacy, ya know.
This olde pharte needs to get busy. . .
Matters of Principle or just Irrational Overconfidence?
I have ceased being shocked at the *cough* “deep thinkers” *cough* who share their “thoughts” in various print and eprint media whose “deep thoughts” are too deep to allow mundane things like spell checkers, and whose “literacy” extends only to what they have heard (and dependably misunderstood) others say.
It’s as though being stuck on a wad of gum at the far lefthand side of the Dunning-Kruger Curve is a matter of idiotic pride for them. Yeh, it’s a principle. #gagamaggot
Continue reading “Matters of Principle or just Irrational Overconfidence?”
Asked and Answered. Move on.
I wear a scanable medalert bracelet with online med info that includes my allergies. Listed FIRST under “allergies” is my serious adverse reaction to being asked the same question more than once. When asked the same question a second (or third or. . . ) time, I tend to answer, “Asked and answered,” and let ’em look it up. I have no patience with lazy, arrogant, insulting asshats with nothing better to do than waste my time.
I answer cops the same way when asked the same question more than once: “Asked and answered. Move on.” (Last time I did so it was the local chief of police. He had illegitimately stopped me for a traffic infraction I had not committed. I don’t take their crap. I declined his offer of a ticket and moved him along. Seriously. Coincidentally, he resigned two weeks later. . . Yeh, seriously.)
I am too old to take crap from anyone. Period.
Forget “civil disobedience.” Such disrespectful behavior from people who think of themselves as authorities calls for less than civil disobedience. Outright disrespect returned for disrespect from people who are NOT one’s “betters.”
But maybe that’s just me. And maybe I should work on that. . . but I doubt I will.
“Men are Expendable”. . .
. . .according to this, but I had a slightly different takeaway from the chart below (of course).
Lists “civilian” jobs but excludes LEOs (whom I count as civilian1, regardless what LEOs WANT to be thought of as). Doesn’t matter. Even if they were included (and even if this were a more or less accurate chart, which I doubt), cops would only rate somewhere around seven or eight on the chart. Not nearly as dangerous as they would have us think.
1 This pretty well sums up my views about cops and their job hazards: No One Cares If You Go Home Safe At The End Of Your Shift. Michael Z. Williamson deals with the issues of police safety very well, but another post of his details why I really DGARA about cop safety. Cops NOT policing themselves to eliminate the incidents detailed there are the reason for my disinterest in their safety. I don’t wish them ill, but neither can I work up a lot of interest in their safety. They’re adults, I assume, and chose the job, AND do not properly police their own ranks, so. . .