Trick or Treat?

We stopped giving candy to kids who came by several years ago when the normative behavior seemed to have become, “Gimme!” instead of a more polite and appreciative behavior. I’d consider dispensing candy again if I had a couple of these filled with “penny candy” and set to dispense a couple of lil pieces of candy for a quarter.

“Gimme,” indeed. Little monsters. (And I include the parents of those little monsters who went around demanding their candy when I say “little monsters”. At the very least, they have tiny, withered ethics and little positive influence on their children, the front line monsters.)

Puppy, Slacking Off

Readers (all both of you) here may recall my fondness for Puppy Linux. The new “standard” Puppy, version 5.2.8 is Ubuntu-compatible, but still the same lean Puppy that loads from a CD or flash drive and runs in RAM. Very slick. The ONLY thing to hold against it is that it doesn’t do palm check on my touchpad on this lil lappy when I have a mouse plugged in. But seriously, that’s the only negative I can think of. Update: *sigh* I feel like such an idiot. It was right in front of my face… just in a different place than where I was looking. Turned the touchpad off. No complaints whatsoever, now. 🙂

Newer? Puppy 5.3, “Slack Puppy” based on Slackware. Notalotadiff, really, except for repositories and a couple of cool utilities (the Frisbee network setup applet is no better or worse than the usual Puppy network setup utility, but it’s as easy, which is to say, super easy-peasy). One thing I just noticed that I might end up down-checking 5.3 for is strangely lower volume levels. I may just have to fiddle with something. (Yep. Adjusted things via the Alsa setup wizard. All fine, now.)

Very nice is the simplest Flash setup of any ‘nix distro I’ve used to date. When I specified I wanted to install Opera, Puppy offered to install Flash, installed it and… that’s all.

Anywho, ‘s’cool. I think I’ll put this version on a flash drive like I have with Puppy 5.2.8 so I can carry a “computer” around in my shirt pocket. Any computer that will boot from a flash drive can then have a customized Puppy, with my saved files, needed apps, etc., right there. Yeh, yeh, I have a bunch of stuff “in the cloud,” but sometimes, it’s really, really handy to be able to have another OS to boot someone’s computer to, and keeping all MY files (and activities) segregated–and back in my pocket when I leave–can be a very, very Good Thing.

BTW, here’s a screenshot from my flashdrive Puppy 5.2.8:

Further Update: Another neat version: Puppy “Racy” 5.1.111. Pretty cool initial setup wizard making the already simple Puppy setup even easier. I do NOT like the absence of some repositories (particularly the Ubuntu repositories) in the default installation menu. Notaproblem, really, but just a lil flaw in an otherwise superb build.

Sick, Just Sick

Seriously. You can search for Warehouse Deals on Amazon for yourself:

What? Is Amazon parting Jobs out? *heh*

Oh, and Jobs rates just above disposable diapers? That’s sooo uncool…

Notahotpocket

Yep.That’s the name of this notarecipe: Notahotpocket. It’s not a grilled cheese “sandwish” either, since it’s not grilled in any way, but when I’m rushed for time, it does OK.

Need:

Bread
Cheese
Toaster
Microwave
Paper towel

Pop a coupla pieces of bread in the toaster.
Slice some cheese (or unwrap a piece of pre-sliced, if that’s the way you roll).
Place toast, buttered if you wish, on paper towel
Place cheese between pieces of toast
Microwave for ~20-30 seconds, more or less depending on your microwave.

Quick, no clean-up. If you have the time and want to clean-up something, pan poach an egg beforehand. Add some precooked bacon (please, the less cooking the better when this shortcut “sandwish” is necessary) and you have a quick breakfast “sandwish”. But better to skip cooking the egg and just slap on some precooked bacon (again: saves cleaning time). It’ll warm up nicely in the microwave oven while the cheese is melting.

Other variations are easy, of course. Cleaning a knife’s not all that time-consuming, so slicing some onion and peppers while the bread is toasting wouldn’t really cost any time. A hair more time in the microwave, maybe.

There: Notahotpocket.

Who’s to Blame?

Since the Feds were directly responsible for more than 2/3 of the risky sub-prime mortgages that led to the crash, why, oh why, aren’t the Republican candidates making that argument? From IBD:

Oh, BTW, the other less than a third of risky mortgages? Oh, they were mandated by the Feds, anyway…

OWS: It Fisks Itself

Shooting fish in a barrel, tasking candy from babies: both several orders of magnitude harder than ridiculing OWS, since the OWS crowd does that to itself without even being aware of it. Exhibit #3,476:

She (that is female, isn’t it?) can’t figure this one out on her own? Of course not. Such self-made idiots need to go live in an assisted thinking facility. “Here, dearie, don’t bother with trying to think things through. Let me make all your decisions for you.” After all, it’d just be the next reasonable step from letting the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind and Academic Nut Fruitcakes do their all their so-called “thinking” for them.

And, even given the expenses, I think such a move could be a net gain for society as a whole.