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My observant reader *heh* will note. . .

That something different is goin’ on here at America’s Third World County. . .

Yeh, the theme I’d used for years was broken by an incompatible WP upgrade, and I’m reduced to using an outa the box plain vanilla theme. Probably for the best. I may reinstall a few of the plugins I once had installed and re-list a (very trimmed down) set of blogs and other features. . . eventually.

Meanwhile, I think this will just serve as what it became six or seven years ago, after its first six or seven years as. . . something else, and just be the place where the voices in my head are free to utter. . . whatever opinions they have. (I’m always interested in what they have to say, whether anyone else is or not. 😉 )

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Thinning the Herd?

*heh*

So, got a bill for Medicare Part B. Was expecting the rate quoted me on the phone and online. Was 3X as much.

Now, folks who are subliterate or simply stupid might have had a heart attack or some such, thus thinning the herd, as it were. *heh* Of course, I read on, and although nowhere did the accompanying documentation say it was a quarterly premium, there was a brief note stating it was for 01/01/17-01/03/31, so it was no biggie.

But I can still see some doofus who’s been TOLD the bill would be 1/3 the amount shown get all red in the face, stroke out or have a heart attack, simply because he’d not read (or understood?) the accompanying documentation.

Oh, a moron from Australia (who keeps finding his way into my SPAM folder) said something stupid (as always) about “. . .the small patch of ground between Canada and Mexico,” referring to the US. Yeh, including the mostly desolate wastes of Australia, his own “continent” amounts to just about 10,000 square miles more than the continental US.

Still, with less than 10% of the official US population, there’s room for such massive stupidity in Australia.

See? This is why I check my SPAM folder. Every now and then, I find something mockworthy.

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*meh* What Do I Know, Anyway?

Confession: I saw “It’s a Wonderful Life” once, when I was 18. Didn’t like it. I found it to be too artificially manipulative and full of stereotypes. The plot was also dissatisfying.

It’s a lousy Christmas movie.

*shrugs* What do I know, anyway. . .

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Happy Day to My Wonder Woman

Actually, maybe even happier day to me.

38 years ago today was the day after Thanksgiving, and also the day after our rehearsal dinner (hosted by my Aunt Bettie and Uncle Milton at their home). I can’t claim to have a coherent memory of the day, because, well, it was my wedding day, I was sick, and I was on whatever it was my mom had given me to help me deal with a (typical for me any time something significant was going on in my life) monster cold. *heh*

My lil house was jammed full of siblings and parents, and I’m not too sure it was built for the six extra people it held. . . but, eh, I was only semi-conscious of the crowd.

And then, there she was.

🙂

And now, here she is.

She tells me she loves me still.

I tell her it’s not my fault. *heh*

Happy anniversary, sweetheart.

Continue reading “Happy Day to My Wonder Woman”

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Just Goofing Around

Virtualbox on a Linux Mint machine running a Win7 VM with a Puppy Linux VM running on that (off a thumb drive) with a sandboxed browser searching with DuckDuckGo loaded from an anonymizer proxy service.

Safe?

Nah. Just maybe a wee tad safer than using a compromised TOR session. . .

*sigh*

(Yeh, yeh, old news. But doing the above was still amusing. 🙂 )

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Language Fun

So, I streamed a movie. It’s in German with Romanian (or thereabouts–some Eastern Eurpoean Romance language) subtitles. . . overlaid by English subtitles. The English subtitling cuts out halfway through. *meh* By that time, the dual language “refresher” has made the dialog still intelligible, so. . . enjoyed the rest of the movie.

Reminded me of watching the Swedish version of the Stieg Larsson “Girl With/Who” trilogy. Sure, I have and had read the books beforehand and knew the story line and characters, but by the second movie, I was pretty much following the dialog w/o the subtitles. Fun.

BTW, I later tried to watch the Hollyweird version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and. . . no. Just no. Not even nearly as good as the Swedish version.

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Sometimes, Unintended Consequences Have MASSIVELY Unintended Benefits

All the manufactured sturm und drang of folks upset that “their” criminal candidate–surprisingly!–managed to lose a fixed election to a clown has driven more and more #NeverTrump -ers into reluctant defense of the Orange Clown, and reluctant Trumpery voters into firm support for a pres-elect no thinking person wanted.

Chill or lose even bigger down the road, dumbasses.

“The trouble began” the morning after the election, when the principal of West High emailed the teachers: “Please be positive and strong and teach the heck out of our kids today.”

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Small Consolation

The only consolation (and it’s weak tea, indeed) in a Trumpery presidency that one might possibly have is that at least the Queenie Cscklepants Cylon (and the rest of the Clinton Crime Cartel) isn’t scheduled to reign in the WH. *sigh* Sadly, very sadly, a cheesy reality series star is likely to be less harmful (kinda like being shot with a 9mm Parabellum is less harmful than being shot with a .50BMG).

Since I refused to vote for either of the Uniparty’s candidates, at least my hands (and conscience) are clean.

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“Be Prepared”

From a discussion thread elsewhere in answer to a guy’s request for recommendations for a “pocket knife” for his 9-year-old daughter to take on a scout camping trip”

“Get her a real tool. . . ”

See, now THIS is why I have three EDC knives on me at all times (sometimes more, actually). Each is a real tool, and each is useful in different ways, and they don’t take up much room, really. A Gerber belt folder (belted horizintally, so it looks like it could instead be my “dumb” flip phone); a Swiss Army Knife in left front pocket; a Kershaw Speedsafe lockback in my right front pocket. Each sees daily use for different tasks, as suited to their capabilities/features.

(I have a couple of others in my car bag,** but those are both sheath knives for more heavy duty uses, oh, and one locking folder designed to also be used as a seat belt/car window “escape” knife, in the driver’s side pocket.)

Remember: “two is one and one is none.” Therefore, “three is two and two is one and one is none”? *heh*
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**car bag: similar to this, but no multi-tool, because I also have a small soft-side tool bag with common auto tools/equipment tucked in with my spare tire and tire tools. Car bags similar on both our vehicles.

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The Tree of Liberty

Everyone is familiar (by “everyone” I mean, of course, everyone except the historically and culturally illiterate 80% of our current society *sigh*) with the Jefferson comment,

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is its natural manure.”

May we now add the tears of soi-dissant “liberals” to the nurture of liberty? Oh, and how about the tears of CACAs (members of the Cult of Anthropogenic Climate Alarmism), as well?

Continue reading “The Tree of Liberty”