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402 Pages of Not Quite Wasted Time

Every now and then, I pick up a John Sandford pseudo-mystery (OK, they fit the genre, but are just a bit too predictable, mmK?). Usually, it’s for a similar reason as the one I picked up yesterday. My Wonder Woman had a flat, and, to my eye, it looked like a full-on replacement, despite the massive amount of tread left on the thing (when I got there, it was sitting on the rim and looked like it had been driven on it–not something I can really fault her for, and it wasn’t but for a fairly short distance).

So, I took it on the spare to the closest place I could get a passable replacement tire. Goodyear at WallyWorld a couple of miles away. Didn’t want to drive it far on the spare, because the spare that came with the–used–car is directional, and in the position it was on the car, it was rotating backwards. Yeh, yeh, I know I could have switched it out with another tire, but no. Not a big deal for a short drive, but this is the second time it’s been used in that wheel position, and I just did not want to drive it far.

So, as I said, WallyWorld. I hadn’t prepared myself for the wait, so I picked up a book there. The absolute best on offer at WallyWorld was a John Sandford novel. OK. Read the thing (>i>read most of it while waiting). Not bad but not much of a mystery, really. A few quirky characters did liven the plot a bit, but it was still something of a slog. Just not that good, and filled with things that, had it been a Kindle ebook, I could have “report[ed] content error” on many, many occasions. Putnam really needs better quality editors, IMO. Literate ones, at the very least.

*sigh*

Oh, well, I’ll always have the quirky characters–oh, and the descriptive narrative about the geography, etc. There are those, at least.

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Reading. . . Mostly

“In Defense of Graphic Novels”

I must admit that when I was a (very) young lad, I enjoyed both “graphic novels” and comic books–and viewed them as separate classes of reading. Then again, the “graphic novels” I was exposed to 60 years ago were Classics Illustrated that whetted my appetite for the “uncondensed” versions, so I’m a bit at sea as to the new (well, to me) “graphic novel” genre. Although I long ago left highly-illustrated fiction behind me, I too appreciate the place such works can have in enjoyable reading experiences, and in expanding literacy (if the accompanying text is literately-written). I can even see a place for such works as a reader advances in literacy, just for entertainment’s sake if nothing else. Advancing educational goals through enforced rejection of such pleasure reading isn’t, necessarily–advancing educational goals, that is.

Still, most readers would, IMO, benefit from eventually “graduating” to other reading materials, even though that would not necessarily mean leaving “graphic novels” and comic books behind entirely. Of course, looking at the typical reading matter of a normal “adult” American (social media “memes,” captioned “cute cat pics,” and highly-illustrated–with photos–popular magazines, etc.), it doesn’t seem that many Americans go much beyond comic book reading, anyway.

Sometimes, “educators” vitiate learning by sucking any joy at all out of it.

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The Search is Still On

Although I almost exclusively used the Opera Browser on my computers from the time I discovered it in 1995, I have always used more than one browser, even Me$$y$oft’s Internet Exploder, from time to time. That changed several years ago, when Opera stopped producing what I, at that time, found to be the best browser out there, and began using a Chrome-based rendering engine while dropping many of the features I had come to rely on and adding other “features” that I found unuseful. So, in 2013, the search was on to discover a browser that worked well for me.

Avant Browser has some interesting features (especially native downloading of video files and switching between rendering engines) but lacks many features I r=prefer. I still keep it updated and use it from time to time.

Chrome? Dislike.

Firefox? Dislike. (But was for a long time the only option for TOR browsing, so had to have it *sigh*)

IE and Edge? @gagamaggot

Vivaldi? *meh* Mixed feelings and experiences. Took ’em FAR too long to get anything like fully functional bookmarking, and even now bookmarks and some other features are lacking, IMO.

Yandex Browser: Russian offering based on several different browser technologies (as is the current Opera Browser. . . sorta). Sure, some Russian hacker is probably following me around, though Yandex says they don’t do that, but the thing works really well and has most of the features Opera 12.X had, including robust bookmark management that works well for me, including syncing between my various installs fo the browser in different OSes.

Brave Browser is relatively new and has some very interesting and useful features, but needs a few extensions installed to come up to the Yandex Browser’s functionality. I do like the simple-to-use TOR functionality that is built into the browser. Three basic modes: Normal Browsing, Private Browsing, Private Browsing with TOR. While the latter disables the extensions that I prefer for different functions, it’s still quite useful. Although I surf behind a decent VPN, adding a TOR browser session when following some links where I KNOW I’ll be tracked just makes me smile, slightly.

So, for now, my primary browsers are Yandex and Brave, with occasional uses of Avant Browser, but things remain in flux.

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Just a Wee FYI

Just an FYI: you probably (almost certainly) do not know everything you think you know. (I know I do not, which, perhaps, makes learning new things daily much easier for me in a way.)

No one’s knowledge is exhaustive, even in areas of professional specialization. KNOWING that there is always more “out there, somewhere” to learn about every topic one is aware of (there are many topics that you and I aren’t even aware are areas of knowledge–think on that one, eh? 😉 ) can, if one lets it, encourage one to just keep on learning.

A day w/o learning something new–even, or perhaps especially, when it is something new about something “old,” old knowledge to us–IMO, is a day wasted.

Just sayin’.

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Quick Fix for “Cold Coffee Syndrome” ;-)

Sometimes, when I have yet to reach Optimal Coffee Levels, I set my mug down and. . . forget to sip The Holy Brew while it is at the proper temp. I used to keep an electric cup warmer on my desk for those times when my mind wandered, but my last use of such a thing was ~20 years ago, so. . .

REALY effective “silver bullet” thermos that holds a coupla mugs full of coffee. Pour some into a teensy lil eleven ounce cup and sip. Even if my mind wanders to something task-oriented and I let it cool, it’s usually only a coupla ounces that are cool and easily warmed up to nearly optimal temp with a refreshing from the thermos.

I know, I know: it’d be better to just practice better coffee/memory discipline. *shrugs* Lazy, I guess.

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Light Lunch — Easy-Peasy

1-oz. tortilla chips
1 – habanero pepper, diced
1 – serano pepper, diced
Microwave for 55 seconds

Just the right size for a light lunch, and tasty, indeed.

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Success!

She’s baaaaack! *heh*

Well, despite occasional game cam and live trap failures, my Wonder Woman’s cat is finally back. Haven’t checked the game cam again, yet, but somewhere between 1630 and 1810 this afternoon/early evening, the live trap finally, urm, trapped her. Surprisingly, for all that she’s not come when called, and has run off on the one other occasion when spotted, she seemed enormously happy to be back inside, found pleasure in pets (of both kinds: her comrades–well, the dog, at least–and being petted and cuddled), and, of course, some nice, fresh canned cat food.

Now, I’m not going to set the live trap back out for the opossum. Nope. Glad to have one (and where’s there’s one, there are likely to be more) around. Great for pest control.

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One Implication of the Imago Dei

I saw this earlier today, and it spurred the following thoughts, outlined in very brief form below the graphic.

“I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” (Romans 12:1)

This is what Jesus was trying to tell ears that refused to hear when he showed a coin to those who asked him whether it was “lawful” to pay taxes to Caesar. THe coin was stamped with Caesar’s image. We, as His own, are stamped with the image of God. We owe mere money in taxes, but we owe our very selves to Him.

Related:

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Not Quite Deerslayer Mode

So, my Wonder Woman’s cat, who is a completely lifelong inside cat, got out a week and a half ago, and we’ve not actually seen hide nor hair of her since, except for the game cam Son&Heir installed under the deck where I have been leaving food and water since the second day. The photos show her in seemingly good health, so that’s good, but syncing up her schedule and ours has not happened. Yet.

So, bought a live trap. It just came, and I assembled and tested it, then put it, unarmed under the deck with her food just inside the trap, to accustom her to it. I’ll move the food and water further back over the next few days (with the trigger set, but the trap disabled by tie-downs) until we have evidence (disappeared food AND photos of her inside the trap) she will take the food past the trigger. Hopefully, this will work.

One hitch: yesterday AM, about 0100 hrs, an opossum showed up on the pics, nosing around the empty food bowls (Catrina–my Wonder Woman’s cat–had emptied the food about an hour earlier). That could pose a problem. Battery was low on the camera, so nothing was caught last night, though the food bowl was cleaned, as always.

Hopefully, the opossum hasn’t run her off.

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Literary Influences

I relearned how to walk (well, learned how to wak under some circumstances) from Natty Bumpo and Hawk-Eye when I was nine.

Thank you James Fenimore Cooper.