"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
Breakfast for dinner:
2 people
5 eggs scrambled with about a tablespoon of heavy cream and
1/2 pound “hot” sausage and
1/2 diced onion
1/2 C shredded provolone/mozzarellamix
Diced jalapeno on mine.
Filling, delicious, low-carb (protein-sparing) fare.
(Confession: 1/2 of the way through my plate, I decided the jalapenos, though adequately sinus-clearing, were too mild, so added some habanero salsa.)
The Dewey Decimal System is an extremely useful method of categorizing knowledge for cataloging a library, but it is also a very useful system to use when searching out and exploring a topic of knowledge. An understanding of its classifications can yield some few advantages over computer catalogs of libraries for card catalog users, too. And then, just browsing a section, grazing the pages of books from one end of a class to another, can sometimes yield great benefits.
I once spent time “living” any available spare moment in a large state university library as an undergrad (and it wasn’t even the school I was attending *heh*) making such discoveries–especially during one semester when I was taking a course so far off my majors that I had almost NO background, and none of the prerequisite courses (yeh, talked my way ito it because it seemed interesting) in the subject. Result: The professor found my “insights” refreshingly stimulating, much to the disgust of the other seven members of the class who were restricted by having all the prerequisite boundaries instilled in their thinking.
Ah, but of course all classifications of knowledge, especially those which–like the DDS–comprise relatively rigid, detailed classifications, have the basic flaw of placing artificial boundaries between fields of knowledge. But then, it seems to be a basic human trait to connect disparate elements into a whole, even when that “whole” is wholly artificial and even nonsensical. So, the DDS is, in my use at least, most like a box of building blocks divided into compartments by shape, color, size, etc. It can make it useful when searching for just that right building block.
Sometimes, though, one wants to just dump the box out and scramble up the pieces to see what serendipitous connections one might make. That’s the Internet.
Meat (with LOTS of fat for that delicious, delicious flavor! BACON! BACON! BACON! *heh*), eggs, butter, heavy cream, cheese, and almost NO simple carbs, with limited complex carbs along with fiber weighted toward (~75/25) soluble fiber (which I use mostly in baking low-carb stuff). Some salad greens, berries, and nuts.
Minus six inches in waist (and similar elsewhere). Three pounds lost.
But I REFUSE to be stuck in the middle of them.
There is almost no real news anymore. Almost all that purports to be so is Hivemind propaganda. It’s to the point that such sites as The Onion, Duffleblog, and The Babylon Bee are as reliable (or seemingly more so *sigh*) than “accredited” media sources.
And the so-called “right” end of the spectrum is little more reliable than the so-called “left” end of the media spectrum. While the opinion columnists at Townhall are generally more truthful than front page “news” at the New York Slimes, so-called “news” sites/organs such as Worldnet Daily, Breitbart, The Blaze,and ZeroHedge are all, to varying degrees, propaganda for the putative “right.”
Frankly, I don’t ascribe to Zero Hedge, for example, any more credibility than any other Hivemind “reporting.” Sure, like ABCNBCCBSMSNBCFOX, etc., it is propaganda, but every lie at least has a truthful counter. Zero Hedge can serve as a source of “idiot bait” research. In that, it can also be a “serious” source of info. . . of sorts (about as much as with any other Hivemind organ, give or take), if one really digs. 😉 Also, just like other aspects of the Hivemind (reflecting the biases of every point on Pournelle’s Political Axes), it can serve as a way of checking on what the Hivemind (at least its portion) is trying to obscure, twist, or otherwise outright lie about. Pulling the threads for amusement, if nothing else, can provide a few moments of entertainment, at least, and occasionally, as with other Hivemind elements, the facts it twists can be verified and lead to real and useful information when placed in their original context.
I laugh at the times I took Walter Cronkite seriously (as anything but an effective propagandist).
I am a firm believer in ONLY firing proper “warning shots. The only exception to this rule is if an aggressor is wearing body armor. Or is a zombie. Or is a zombie wearing body armor.
Thatisall.
AFAIK, I’ve read everything David Weber has written, even the insane book where Dracula saves humanity from an alien invasion. A laugh riot, for sure, though I’m not sure Weber intended it as such. And for the past ten books or so, every time I pick one up, I ask myself “Why?” Whole swaths of dialog and descriptive narrative seem unnecessarily repetitive (and of much of the “banter” dialog, the less said the better. Actually, the less written and even less read the better).
And would SOMEONE please get through to Weber (or someone–anyone–with a red pencil that works at Baen and/or Tor) to correct his sadly illiterate misuse of “temporal” in his descriptions of civil (secular) officials and clergy gatherings as “lords secular and temporal”? All the phrase does is MISdescribe the group as “lords secular and secular.” #gagamaggot
temporal =
a : of or relating to time as opposed to eternity
b : of or relating to earthly life
c : lay or secular RATHER THAN clerical or sacred : civil lords temporal
Ah, but skipping over the unfortunate babblegab in Weber books does come as the price one pays for otherwise not badly told stories with moral/ethical questions dealt with in ways that are at least somewhat edifying in the end. Maybe that’s why, oh, once every 300-400 books read, I’ll pick up another one by him.
Until we purchase paint tomorrow, and then do the painting, our living room will look a bit. . . weird, at least to my eye.
The new flooring is fine–looks great–but we still have the “Amaryllis Yellow” (over plaster) on three walls, with a “Stadium Red” accent wall (muted by a black glaze sponge treatment) behind the bookcases/entertainment center. It all looked well pulled together with the blond flooring we had before, but just doesn’t work with the new “bronzed acacia wood” flooring. Besides, I just put up our new drapes (anticipating the paint to come; they’ll come down easily during the paint job), and while they are a really pleasant blue, the blue-yellow-red combo is just too, too Hobbit-ish. *heh*
The new wall color will be better: a dove gray on all four walls, with a black sponge glaze treatment on the book/ec wall over the dove gray.
Still need to add the trim back–and add a bit more–as well as a new valence for the drapes. Methinks the trim will be a nice oyster color. *shrugs* Probably. Oh, but speaking of drapes, hung them on dual rods, so we can add sheers later. The new drapes are “blackout” drapes, and with sheers added, that will give us a lot of flexibility in window treatment. I do need to repair my faux “stained glass” treatment of the bay window where the cats have worn out a viewport. Maybe I’ll make a “porthole” for them; maybe not. 😉
A nice lil fillip: dove gray will pickup the mottled gray 1’x2′ tile at the entry door.
Our Olde Ginger Tomcat has for nearly all his life wanted to stretch out beside me, about as close as he could tuck in whenever I sat in anything that provided the room to do so, but not sought to be a lap cat. . . until recently. Now, if I’m sitting and there’s room between a laptop and my torso to allow a lap, he will crawl in and give me “lap massages” with spontaneous purring, whether I pet him or not.
Passages of life for an Olde Tom, I guess.
Meanwhile, taking up almost his former positioning (but with a cat’s width space away), Lil Rescue Kitty will lay there cooing like a dove. Sometimes the Olde Guye will slip between and take up his former preferred position, but just sometimes.
It does make typing on a notebook. . . interesting when he gets fully across my lap. He seems to think my typing motions are petting motions and butts my wrists. Some interesting “head butt typos” sometimes result.
Aaaaaand now, after 30 minutes of “lap time,” he’s decided to head for “his space” beside my left leg. He’ll now probably stay there until I head off to get some tasks done away from the computer. No purring now, though.
Olde Guye 10 years ago:
Really irritating rash on forearms and swelling around my eyes (especially under the right one, and above my left) for the last few days. Some relief from antihistamine tabs and topical ointments, but still irritating, so. . . applied some Oragel (‘cos it was the only topical benzocaine I had _open_ and on hand–a topical pain reliever in one of my FAKs; had some Solarcaine but was an unopened pack). Relief. I’ve still not used either tube of that Oragel 2-pack for its intended purpose. . . *heh*
Another: Despite QuickClot, et al, bandages/gauzes, for some puncture wounds, after last night’s Stop the Bleed class, I still feel comfortable using a combo of WoundSeal on regular gauze, and a tampon if needed, after a tourniquet and before a pressure bandage (like the Israeli Bandage here). Sure, if the wound is bad enough, packing it with QuickClot gauze first might be just the ticket, but WoundSeal + tampon for some is a handy (and relatively inexpensive) backup, and might avert tearing up and packing a wound with a dirty t-shirt or bandana if QC there’s not enough gauze and/or sponges for multiple wounds.
OTOH, my FAKs are outgrowing some of my smaller kit bags. *shrugs* I’d rather carry a better-equipped FAK than more food (and I can always locate and clean water, given the locales I frequent). Don’t really need to be all that concerned about weight/size issues on home kit and car kits, though, so as our home and car FAKs seem to be transitioning to trauma kits, not really a big deal. Will still keep the small kits for minor things, I suppose, but a slightly larger FAK for even just day hikes is in the making, as well.
My last formal first aid instruction, before last night, was… 45 years ago for a Water Safety Instructor certification. while it certainly came in handy 25 years later when I needed to perform CPR on my Wonder Woman (a success story for CPR there!), it would have been good to have had today’s updated “hands only” CPR training, since she had aspirated some food beyond my reach (and knowledge) for extraction prior to the breathing part of CPR in my prior training. *shrugs* The ER doc caught it and lavaged her lungs, and–almost miraculously–averted pneumonia, but it might have been better w/o the breathing part. Maybe. *shrugs*
Still, udating. . . Attended a “Stop the Bleed” class taught by an ER/Trauma center nurse last evening to check and update my first aid knowledge base/practice. Attendance was by reservation of one of the 50 slots. When I signed up in March, I was the 37th person (my Wonder Woman was the 38th). Good review and update. But the thing is, of the 38 who were signed up as of March 18 (and who knows how many of the remaining 50 seats after that), only 12, counting the two of us, were there.
I assume the rest bled out before they got there.
*sigh*