Welcome
- December 21, 2021
- Winter Solstice 2021
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Over the years I have marked the changing of the seasons many times. I dare say I've witnessed them enough to have developed favorites. I'd have to say that my most favorite of the seasons would be winter. This is likely due to the area in which I live where the winters are typically mild.
However, I remember more harsh environments to a lesser degree like that of Blackfoot, Idaho — and Great Lakes, Illinois where there were two seasons, July and winter with a wind chill factor of 70 degrees below zero.
Throughout these experiences I have remained partial to the winter time and snow and it's a facet that many don't see in me because of where we live.
Over the years I have marked the changing of the seasons many times. I dare say I've witnessed them enough to have developed favorites. I'd have to say that my most favorite of the seasons would be winter. This is likely due to the area in which I live where the winters are typically mild.
However, I remember more harsh environments to a lesser degree like that of Blackfoot, Idaho — and Great Lakes, Illinois where there were two seasons, July and winter with a wind chill factor of 70 degrees below zero.
Throughout these experiences I have remained partial to the winter time and snow and it's a facet that many don't see in me because of where we live.
I find it much easier to keep warm than to keep cool.
Solstice refers to that time or date twice yearly at which the sun reaches its maximum or minimum declination and therfore marked by the longest and shortest days.
This year Winter solstice in Northern Hemisphere will be at 10:58 AM on Tuesday December 21.
The winter solstice, aka the hiemal solstice, brumal solstice, or hibernal solstice, happens when either of our planetary poles reach its maximum tilt away from the Sun.
Various time zone differences account for minor deviations in the actual dates and times recorded for these events.
The significance of a solstice is the changing of the seasons.
The winter solstice is the first day of winter.
Folklore records much significance in the changing of the seasons as marked by the solstice ocurrences.
The Old Farmers Almanac remains one of the oldest consulted references in this regard.
I love the winter time. Happy winter to you.
I find it much easier to keep warm than to keep cool.
Solstice refers to that time or date twice yearly at which the sun reaches its maximum or minimum declination and therfore marked by the longest and shortest days.
This year Winter solstice in Northern Hemisphere will be at 10:58 AM on Tuesday December 21.
The winter solstice, aka the hiemal solstice, brumal solstice, or hibernal solstice, happens when either of our planetary poles reach its maximum tilt away from the Sun.
Various time zone differences account for minor deviations in the actual dates and times recorded for these events.
The significance of a solstice is the changing of the seasons.
The winter solstice is the first day of winter.
Folklore records much significance in the changing of the seasons as marked by the solstice ocurrences.
The Old Farmers Almanac remains one of the oldest consulted references in this regard.
I love the winter time. Happy winter to you.
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- December 20, 2021
- Games Day 2021
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There was an era in my early career when I was a gamer. I was hooked on the early Doom (and Quake) iterations and loved the IPX network multiplayer setup and death match competitions through Doom 3 or so.
Around this time work suddenly became this very serious proposition as I immersed myself into areas that interested me far less because the money was so much better and voila ...
I was no longer a gamer due to time constraints.
I have known a lot of gamers in my life. I had a good friend when I worked at Bechtel who had a computer and all the stuff required for superior gaming experiences ...
Even a fully functional steering wheel with gear shifting and accelerator/brake pedals. I was amazed at the realism before the computer screen when he sat in the yoke of his car or airplane controls and demonstrated a few of his favorites.
Earlier there was an acquaintance and colleague when I taught at the local technical college who was a fantasy role playing game aficionado and authored several very popular iterations of the early role playing games.
He migrated to a support role with one of the school districts in the state and died quite young from a massive coronary. I always suspected his physician wife of ridding herself of his less than hygienic rather greasy presence.
Now the massive multiplayer games predominate the genre. It's just too much for me to personally track because I have too many other irons in the fire.
Suffice it to say a lot of those I know have their favorite game and play it frequently. Too many I know use their phones as gaming devices.
These days I'm far too busy writing markup and code in an attempt to remain technically relevant in my old age.
Today marks Games Day, a gaming convention held annually under the ausipices of Games Workshop who has a number of game franchises and markets all manner of battle alliance games.
Games Day has been in operation since 1975 which is an astounding length of time for a gamer institution.
I think it's good that interest has exhibited such longevity.
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- December 19, 2021
- Not ever going to play Santa
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The movie Miracle on 34th Street is one of those things in my life much older than I am.
It's a belief and fantasy flick released in June of 1947 about a divorced New York mom hiring an old guy to play Santa Claus at Macy's department store (remember good ole retail?) but then is startled by his claim to be the genuine fellow who is named Kris Kringle.
The plot thickens to the point that his sanity is questioned and a lawyer defends him in court by arguing that he's not mistaken.
I enjoyed the movie several times over the years and often considered playing Santa Claus as an adult a few times when the opportunity arose. An ersatz Kris Kringle if you please.
I just saw a piece regarding the scarcity of Santa Claus performance artists ministering to the children of the world these days.
Some venues state the numbers of "mall Santas" (if you will) will be "back to normal" while the true professionals who work in the field do not share this level of optimism.
Yesterday I donned my majestic Santa hat, went for a ride and handed out Christmas cards to some of my most favored vendors as well as a few neighbors — as I usually do this time of season ...
You know, Ricky's Tire and Auto, Chong's Alterations, Speedmart up the street, What A Burger, and a couple of homeless people I encountered panhandling intersections along the way.
At the actual vendor locations we had a few laughs and everyone marvelled at the really nice hat I was wearing.
I get one each year to celebrate the season.
That's about it for me and the Santa Claus part of Christmas.
I have been requested to play Santa before — but I respectfully declined because I'm inimidated at the thought of impersonating the jolly old elf.
It's a just not one of those things I envision myself as doing. Some of us are meant to play Santa. I apparently am not.
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- December 18, 2021
- Finally bought the Squirrelinator
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My substantial tree hugging pro woodland creature friends will shudder to find out that I have finally purchased the Squirrelinator With Basin. I've only been considering it and pondering the numbers of squirrels residing on my property since July or so ...
Said to be the ultimate in squirrel traps, I have an abundance of rodents and I'm afraid that I just don't view them as warm and cuddly. I see them as nusiances ready to damage my house and out buildings without any semblence of regret in the true wild animal fashion which is their nature.
So now I will await delivery and set it out to see if I catch as many squirrels as my friends have stated they trapped. The harvest of animals with this trap has been characterized as nothing short of stupendous.
I'd just as soon not be bothered but how much worrisome vermin activity can a person be made to sweat without acting?
I'm not without mercy but the squirrels keep coming and their numbers are presently unmanagable.
Yes, this model provides for drowning the animals. I have suffered a lot of heat regarding this by a close friend who stated how utterly terrible an end drowning is for the animal — and his words make me feel heartless BUT ...
We must do what we must do.
See Also:
Stalking the elusive Bushy Tailed Tree Rat
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- December 17, 2021
- Bradley Manning still thinks he's a girl
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It's Bradley Edward Manning's birthday.
He is the person who put on the military uniform of the USA then betrayed his country while on active duty.
Then he decided he was actually a woman in a man's body.
Now he thinks he's a full blown girl named Chelsea Elizabeth Manning.
Now then, as I have maintained innumerable times your sex is determined by the configuration of your sex chromosomes aka "genotype".
• If your genotype configuration is XX you are a female. • If your genotype configuration is XY you're a male. • If your genotype configuration is some composite of the two you're a chromosomal mosaic aka "intersex".
Those are your choices in life as we know it.
You aren't a female (or male) just because you say so.
Bradley Manning's genotype is XY. This renders him a male.
All of the manipulation of his phenotype (outward appearance including cosmetics, hormones, and surgery) he can do is not going to change his genetics.
He remains a genetic male and that is as far as you go with me.
I don't care about your feelings. I care about the biology. I care about the science.
A man who thinks he is a woman is about as unrealistic as the fifteen inch penis I always thought I was supposed to have. Sometimes you need to face reality and let the illogical go.
The fact that he is a totally screwed up individual is neither here nor there. How could he be anything BUT screwed up.
His is a constant progression of bad moves and someone that stupid should stay in the background as much as possible.
Just because the traitor brigand Obama commuted his sentence doesn't make it right.
Just saying you are something does not make it so. Biology tells the tale.
When you're a fairly unscrupulous immoral human being anyway what does your genotypical sex matter to those equally unsavory no character individuals you attract.
Some other equally fugly, deranged dissatisfied human being.
Duh.
See Also:
National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day 2021
Julian Assange arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London
Bradley Manning for Senate
The Reality Plot Thickens
Bradley Manning Remains a Traitor
The trouble with Chelsea
WikiLeaks at 10
Sometimes consequence are difficult
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- December 16, 2021
- The Refrigerator William Perry on his Birthday
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I once saw The Fridge and his brother standing on the front porch of his home on state road 19 (Edgefield Highway) on the outskirts of Aiken, SC a very long time ago while returning to Columbia from a teaching gig at Aiken Technical College.
My memories were of two strapping black men standing on the porch up a hill in leather coats and hats standing there looking quite majestic.
The Fridge has seen better days, I'm afraid. He's had a number of health problems related to the wear and tear of his sports endeavors and financial issues otherwise since his heyday with The Bears in the NFL.
I'm hoping his memories of being the heaviest person to ever score a touchdown in a Superbowl game and his largest ever (size 25) Superbowl Ring sustains him in these waining years.
When we get on in years a lot of times we mostly have our memories.
Anyway William Anthony Perry was born December 16, 1962 so this would make him 59 years young and I hope his problems all abate and he enjoys the rest of his time here in this iteration.
He always struck me as a likable character — and over the years I have regretted not stopping the automobile and getting out to speak with him and his brother on that day so long ago.
We were both much younger men at that time.
Happy birthday to you !
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- December 15, 2021
- If it's only available on Amazon I don't want it
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I hate to get off on yet another rant here, but I don't shop amazon. I'm pretty much done with walmart as well.
These are two retailers who think that they own you. Shit for IP geolocation. Act as though you can't spend your money elsewhere.
When all you can do is piss a customer off I ask you, why bother ?
I increasingly notice a fair number of items I would like to have being only available on Amazon.
I am fine with doing without.
I don't require any more stupidity in my life than already exists. All they have is a sad story, idiot employees, and substandard merchandising and it's just more than I care to continue tolerating.
You think you must accommodate their every whim to do business with them.
I can simply go down the street and get what I require from a local brick and mortar establishment and circumvent all the ecommerce bullshit.
Bullshit, thy name is amazon.
Bullshit, you also are called walmart.
See Also:
eCommerce is Tedious
Alexa Enabled Devices
I hate STUPID web sites
Alexa has been eavesdropping on owners from the beginning
Walmart New Checkout Experience
Resisting Amazon Hating on Walmart
I don't do Amazon anymore ...
Retail Seems to be Going Away
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- December 14, 2021
- Monkey Day 2021
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When I was en route from Hanahan, SC to Key West Florida with my family during my daddy's Navy change of duty station we stopped at many of the various tourist traps along the way.
One of those was a place called 'Alligator Farm' or something similar and yes, there were many gators, some of which were ginormous.
The thing I left there remembering was a cage full of baby monkeys which were for sale huddled together looking cold and noticing the flea infestation and just how miserable they appeared.
Monkey Day is one of those unofficial international holidays celebrated each December 14.
This holiday was created and popularized in 2000 by Casey Sorrow and Eric Millikin while they were students at Michigan State University pursuing art. I have wondered just what the allure was over the years.
Monkey Day celebrates "all things simian" such as apes, chimps, tarsiers, lemurs, and other non human primates.
Monkey Day is celebrated worldwide. It is aka World Monkey Day and International Monkey Day.
I mark the day because I feel that wild animals such as monkeys are similar enough to people and should be celebrated ... from the biggest mightiest gorilla to the tiniest most delicate pygmy marmoset. Too often we impose our human whims on other species in the name of research, entertainment, and even the impulses of those who would exploit that which should be allowed to remain wild and unfettered.
Perhaps other avenues in these areas might be more appropriate.
See Also:
Monkey Day
Monkey Day 2019
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- December 13, 2021
- Something I always regret
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I did an additional play slip in the last megamillions lottery and the next day, as usual, I regreted it.
I've decided that the quick picks aren't any worse than my picks even though they are equally dismal.
When the powerball butt holes changed the rules yet again I dropped out of their game entirely.
When the state of South Carolina dropped lucky for life even though I was playing happily I was forced to do the same.
The weekly diminished lottery plays have increased my savings account by $50 weekly.
All being said — to me the lottery is simply this fantastic pipe dream.
I keep thinking that there is some mystery pattern I could learn to recognize, but there isn't.
After all, I suppose random is random.
So the plan is to continue with the megamillions plays and maintain my boycott of the powerball crooks.
Truth be known I wish the state would rejoin the lucky for life game.
Actually, I wish they had never forced us to leave.
I often have the thought that the lottery is somehow rigged.
Perhaps it's merely the astronomical odds.
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- December 12, 2021
- Today is Mayim Bialik's 46th Birthday
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I've been watching Mayim Bialik hosting Jeopardy with Mom lately. I have been a fan of hers since Amy Farrah Fowler appeared on The Big Bang Theory.
The character took me by surprise and I learned to enjoy that which she represented and of course that ran over into my interpretation of the actress doing the portrayal.
Prior to that I watched her a few minutes on Blossom, but that never floated my boat due to the age differential between that series and me ...
I was working the local school district at that time and one of the locations I supported Northside Middle School had a photograph of Blossom on a small bulletin board adjacent to the office desk.
Mayim Chaya Bialik was born December 12, 1975 and is an American actress, game show host, and author.
She has been hosting Jeopardy since August 2021 along with Ken Jennings who we have been watching as well.
I try to let Mom decide what we watch in an effort to provide adequate entertainment ... seeing how I don't really care what is either on air or streaming myself.
Her name is said to mean 'water' in the KJV Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon.
I like her. She is 20 years younger than me and this always makes me think of her portrayal of one of the Wallace Kids on Pumpkinhead when she was 12 years old. Then I was 32.
Young stuff. Young smart educated stuff.
Today is Mayim Bialik's birthday. Now she is 46 and I am 66. Good gracious !
Happy birthday to you !
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- December 11, 2021
- International Mountain Day 2021
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Some of the most exciting moments in my life have involved the travel of mountains. There were the clouds enveloping the Grand Tetons in Wyoming when Dad took us all to Yellowstone from Blackfoot, Idaho during my childhood.
There was the time Jerry Landry and I rode down the 281 returning from liberty to the ship from a trip down the Blue Ridge Parkway and came alongside a cliff on a two lane road with a sheer drop of several hundred feet separated from us by a 3 foot stone wall.
Mountains are a function of geologic changes in the Earth, many taking eons to undertake. They are spectacular formations by and large and I enjoy traveling them when I can.
This is International Mountain Day. Go ride down a mountainside if you can !
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- December 10, 2021
- Dewey Decimal System Day 2021
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My last encounter with the local county library was years ago and turned me against them altogether. Were I a violent man I should be in prison right now ...
Had I not attained that modicum of control I sought immediately following the incident.
I went to the library ostensibly to use their computer to look for work and the dickhead bald male reference librarian decided he was going to 'discipline' me for some perceived infraction of his protocols.
Rather than break his pencil neck geek cervical vertebrae — which HAD crossed my mind — I departed never to return again.
I don't need the library, their assets, or their insipid lip giving punk ass librarian.
The porcine appearing caucasian white girl sporting the brown afro in all her jewish appearing pseudointellectual engaged ass wasn't any better.
December 10 is Dewey Decimal System Day. The day commemorates the birth of Melville Dewey, the inventor of the Dewey Decimal System of library classification. ... The system, first published in 1876, organizes library materials by fields.
Go to the libary and look at the arrangement. Maybe you won't get abused during YOUR visit. I might have returned but I was afraid I might kill somebody.
I'm just way too pretty and have entirely too many responsibilities otherwise to go to prison.
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- December 9, 2021
- Thinking of Joan Armatrading on her birthday
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Since that period right after high school I have been a fan of Joan Armatrading and her music.
Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading, CBE was born December 9, 1950 at Basseterre, Saint Christopher and Nevis, British Leeward Islands.
She is a lyricist and guitarist second to none.
There have been moments when she has brought comfort to me though I was thousands of miles away from home out at sea in the North Atlantic doing 70 degree rolls.
She touched my soul at a time when I was unapproachable by most others.
Now that I am old that allure of her sounds still beckons me to stop and listen.
I don't really agree with her lifestyle nor do I care what she pursues in that aspect of her existence.
I am content to allow her to be her and be myself and enjoy those things we have in common.
She is a musician and I am a lover of good music.
Today is the birthday of my chanteuse muse.
Happy birthday to you !
Somebody Who Loves You
I don't know what you're thinking
Should I stay or say goodbye
You blow smoke on the ceiling
You don't wanna look into my eyes
You've got somebody who loves you
But now I wanna see you fan the fire
Wrap the sheets around you
With me hugged up inside
I wanna see you fan the fire
Come on stoke the blaze
And don't run for cover
You've got somebody who loves you
Somebody loves you
You've got somebody who loves you
Somebody loves you
Cozy corner your arms around you
So tired of one night stands
Left with longing from misspent passion
With one more human to despise
You've got somebody who loves you
Don't mine for gold in the dim lit cafes
And as the gypsy once foretold
Love is dark but no stranger
Mistaken shyness can be costly
Too hasty a goodbye
Then you've lost me
You've got somebody who loves you
Somebody loves you
I wanna see you fan the fire
Come on stoke the blaze
And don't run for cover
Mistaken shyness can be costly
Too hasty a goodbye
Then you've lost me
I wanna see you fan the fire
Joan Armatrading
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- December 8, 2021
- First confirmed case of Wuhan COVID-19 in China in 2019
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On this day in 2019 saw the first confirmed case of the Wuhan COVID-19 virus in China.
Chinese victim. Chinese virus. Chinese point of origin.
Trump had it totally correct from the beginning. He fought the naysayers tooth and nail.
While all too many elements of the deep state played pc with calling things what they were a lot of people died.
Had we legislators and executive administration who could do without the payola from red China perhaps they would be more attuned to the health of the taxpayer.
Shame on us for allowing a stupid element of the governement to take charge.
Unscrupulous, immoral, without redeeming virtue thy name is democrat.
We were much better off with the Trump administration.
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