Category: The Kitchen Sink

I saw what seems at first to be a really good idea when I was out picking up some groceries the other day. Local school district school bus, folks handing out a “shopping list” that read:

Help Us Stuff the Bus with School Supplies for LOCAL Xxxxx County Children in Need

Most needed items:
Crayons
#2 Pencils
Glue
Glue Sticks… etc.

The 20-or-so-item list included backpacks and other items as well, of course. (Where was my backpack when I was a kid half a century ago? Nowhere, mon frere. Now, it’s an essential? *feh*)

At first blush, this seemed a good idea. Then I began wondering how many large LCD TVs, how much beer, etc., the parents of these “Children in Need” had spent their “economic incentive” checks on*.

Perhaps it’s just my experiences while living in an “inner city” neighborhood watching neighbors “pay” for steak and lobster with food stamps then drive off in their recent model Caddy while I could only afford macaroni (because I was working). Or perhaps it’s my experience working with a homeless shelter, where half the folks who were there were “homeless” because their children wanted nothing to do with them or because they were on the lam and hiding from the law.

A myriad of other experiences led my mind to the thought, “Sure, I suppose there are some genuinely needy children, but most of this will simply be going toward enabling childish “parents” to avoid providing for their children while they greedily seek to meet their “wants”.

Nope. I didn’t even toss a #2 pencil stub in the hopper. The amount I saw there already would probably provide for the school needs of the genuinely needy kids in the county for the next few years. The rest will go to children of illegals (who should be educated in their own country), lazy bums and those who are simply working the system.

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*BTW “economic incentive” moneys here at twc were not put into paying off bills, savings or such, because we made a choice to instead make some capital improvements around here at twc central. After all, this home is our single largest asset, and since it will be entirely ours next year (except for the fact that we actually–as does everyone who thinks they own property outright–simply “lease” it from our local governments who can take it away from us on a whim), keeping it in good shape makes good sense. And, since the “economic incentive” money was really just a “loan” against 2008 taxes (just wait and see), the “use it (for something durable) or lose it” principle applied big time.

Some folks will spend their time doin’ whatever weird thing they can think up. Sometimes, it turns out to be amazing and inspiring nonetheless. This may be one of those times.

“Bicycle Ballerina”

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

h.t. Windows Secrets

Not. *sigh*

After (immediately after) a recent “update” of WINE, the primary reason I have for using WINE at all–running Encore (a Windows music transcription program that utterly and completely blows away any and all native Linux offerings) in Linux–has disappeared. Yep. Encore refuses to even run at all after the update. Loads and dies, that’s it.

*sigh* As soon as I have a few mins to think on this and do some poking around, I may (may) be able to either discover what’s going on… or downgrade to an earlier, working, version of WINE. (Yeh, yeh: bug report at WINHQ–eventually)

Oh. Joy.

Not.

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(OTOH, everything else is working fine, after a weekend of ALL sound simply disappearing in Ubuntu–well after the issue with WINE/Encore had cropped up. Finally decided to simply try the ole Windows standby of simply rebooting and sound’s back, which is nice given my new lil [upscale from the ones they now churn out for Dell, but not high end] Altec Lansing speakers. And yeh, I know Altec-Lansing isn’t what it was back in the 70s when some old–even then–A7s introduced me to the company.)

I was a johnnie-come-lately to the internet, back in the day. Sure, by 1993 I had an email account with MCI, online accounts with account with Delphi, Compuserve and another with AOL (where I spent most of my AOL time in the “no minutes charged” MHM forum *heh*), and I’d enjoyed participating in several BBS, notably as a lurker on the Percussion BBS maintained by the Percussive Arts Society (the ACDA didn’t have a BBS as far as I knew in those days or I’d have been “on” it quite a bit as well).

But then 1993 hit and Mosaic and Cello opened up a world beyond internet searches with ARCHIE and VERONICA searches for academic articles, etc. My addiction to the web was born.

Once I was able to ditch my various online services for one ISP, I was in hog heaven.

Fifteen years after that latecomer’s training wheels intro to more than simple article searches using the powerful but now anachronistic Archie and Veronica and the gang, the addiction’s just as powerful if not mre so.

Now, in these days of $4/gallon gasoline, what would I (want to–*heh*) do without VNC (and other solutions for less technically savvy folks) allowing me access to remote clients’ computers? Heck, more basic, what would I do w/o my VOIP phone? My monthly phone bill would climb back into the $500 range again, and I’d have to cut waaay back on beer, books and blondes. (OK, not the blondes. My Wonder Woman’s all the “blondes” I need or can cope with, for that matter. I just needed another “b” for the alliteration. :-))

The internet. God bless us every one. And protect us from politicians. Amen.

It hurts so much ya just have to grin (painfully). Bill Gates touches briefly (in a looooong email) on a few of the reasons why I have mostly avoided using Windows XP much, myself. Heck, I went through things like he details when folks called me up confused, distressed or simply royally ticked off at XP.

And then came Vista, which has managed to make XP look really, really good.

*heh*

Go, read. Bill Gates on his XP experience.

It’d be hilarious if it weren’t so painful.

Come to think of it, since much of the pain was Bill’s, maybe that’s not such a detraction.

😉

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Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, Allie is Wired, McCain Blogs, Adam’s Blog, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Democrat=Socialist, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Well, the Supreme Court’s term this year ended with a bang, didn’t it? Some are unhappy that more well-armed criminals may face opposition from armed citizens as a result of the Supreme Court’s sudden turn toward sanity:

Washington’s mayor, Adrian Fenty, said he is disappointed. “More handguns in the District will mean more gun violence,” he said at a press conference.

Yep. More chance for goblins to meet their just reward at the hands of their erstwhile victims. Typical “keep the subjects defenseless” twaddle.

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Have you seen Hulu? It’s not the only site out there doing this sort of thing, but its slick presentation of TV shows and movies it has available for streaming is pretty darned good. The pickings are moderately slim, so far, but I’ve watched a couple of episodes of TV shows I missed (for whatever reason–probably an “I don’t want to watch TV tonight” night–I have lotsa those) and found things to note for later viewing.

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Speaking of TV, did the “So You Think You Can Dance” judges make the right decision on which “girl” dancer to kick off this week? My Wonder Woman and I think so. SYTYCD is one of the very, very few TV shows I have been willing to work my schedule around in many years. Discovered it about halfway through its run last year and have eagerly anticipated its return this year. It hasn’t disappointed. Good Stuff, Maynard.

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Anyone want to get up in my attic for me today to run cable? It’s only going to be in the mid-80s outside (which means, perhaps, only about as hot as the suburbs of hell up in the attic) and about 2.000% humidity…

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Woman gets 12-15 years for enslaving and torturing her maids. Her lawyer’s comment?

“I think it’s very harsh,” Hoffman said after the sentencing. “She has suffered dramatically.”

Yeh, well not as much as she will once she reaches her final reward in hell.

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Oh, one more thing I miss in my now quotidian use of Ubuntu: the Windows “Toggle Keys” featurette. I loved having my computer *boop!* at me whenever I inadvertently hit the CAPS LOCK key. The spacings on this new keyboard (as well as the key travel, key height, etc.) have led me to hit the CAPS LOCK key more often in the last week than I have for years. Annoying. I may well resort to the old “pry off the capslock key, stuff high density foam into the cavity and replace the key” trick to make it exceedingly difficult to key in that DOS (OK, and other OS/language) abomination holdover. Yeh, later today after I put my dad’s computer back together (after a DeoxIT treatment and a “new” DVDROM drive installation–BTW, I get nothing for plugging it, but DeoxIT is Very Good Stuff. I probably need to try Stabilant 22 to make a comparison, but DeoxIT should avert some simple hardware errors for my dad for several years).

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What to do with all the sandbags?

I’ll take some, thank you very much. Heck, even the “stinky” ones. I don’t care.

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The underlying story here is “Dog Bites Man,” normal (government corruption) but where it takes a turn for the “man bites dog” weird is that… a government crook is actually being treated as a crook! Watch out for flying pig poop, folks, cos this is weirdness run amok. Think of it: instead of prosecuting government workers who are doing what they are supposed to for imaginary “crimes,” two government workers who accepted bribes from both legal and illegal immigrants to facilitate theri entry/habitation in the U.S. are actually facing charges!

Has Satan ordered an ice rink constructed in hell or what?

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North Caroliona: WTF?!?

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And from the “Driving TWC Central Crazy” department: What’s that funny clickin’ noise, anyway? *sigh* Three things have conspired to help me earn my Stupid sign, recently.

1. My turn signal doesn’t always turn off after a right-hand turn (to be fair, I sometimes manage turns–especially right hand turns–in such a way as to not engage the mechanical CLICK OFF , whatever it’s called).
2. Despite the fact that I can still hear the mosquito ringtone, between the tinitis, road noise (I often drive with a window open–just like “2-60 air conditioning”– and a strange “hole” or flat spot I’ve developed somewhere slightly north of 1Khz, I am often unable to hear the clicker.
3. Then, when the sun’s on my instrument cluster, I often cannot see the darned visual indicator, either

So, there I am, driving along with my “clicker” on. *sigh*

Somebody give me a sign, wouldya?

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Well, that’s all from the voices in my head today. Why don’t y’all give me some more things to think about, eh?

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*heh*

I am not here; this is not me,
No matter what you think you see.
I am not here; this is not me.

Day with my Wonder Woman. Her cardio appointment, shopping, bumming around. Amuse yourselves. Pick up your own mess before you leave.

🙂

Reading a compilation of Howard L. Myers stories recently, I can across a comment that may explain part of the Obamamania that otherwise inexplicably dominates some portions of our society. It can’t be the whole reason, but it implies at least part of the cause(s). From “All Around the Universe” this lil gem:

I chuckled at the memory of old Uncle Buxton. When he talked, his tongue wagged his brain! By which I think I mean his brain was foolish enough to believe what his tongue said.

“…his brain was foolish enough to believe what his tongue said.” Hmmm, folks who believe three or four foolish things before their feet even hit the floor in the morning would have no problems with letting themselves believe the empty and often downright evil balderdash Obama spouts.

For that matter, perhaps Obama has sold himself his own bill of goods. Sincerity is hard to fake convincingly, but once you have that down, nearly anything is possible.

Then again, both Dhimmicrappic and Repugnican’t voters seen bent on embracing fantastic lies, idiocies and slanders of reality from their candidates, nowadays.

Is there no force willing to resist against the fall of night?

Guess not.

*sigh*

The folks over at WINEHQ are proving themselves to be champs. Dan Kegel posted a couple of replies to my post mentioning WINE directing me to submit (and what to submit) bug reports on those issues that were putting me off using it for “critical” (to me) apps. Actually, it really just comes down to one uber-critical app for me.

And the contributors there have been patient with me as my sleep-deprived, under-caffeinated brain failed to check the docs more carefully for such things as classifications of bug severity and lil notices in emails that say, DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS EMAIL *LOL*. (Of course, a “Normal” bug that chops out major portions of an app’s functionaity doesn’t seem “Normal” to me, but I’m just as WINE user with little no experience in how “Major” bugs affect things. I’m sure I’ll learn. Or not, epending on how many brain cells are left and how much time I have left to learn… But at least one of the developers was kind enough to send me a link to the bug classification list. *DUH* The link was right next to the dropdown list for bug severity classification. Major case of The Stupids here. :-))

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