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- November 6, 2021
- National Saxophone Day 2021
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The saxophone holds the distinction of being the only brass instrument in the woodwinds family.
It has a dynamic range which exceeds many other instruments and it's sound can be either soft and melodious or powerful and driving depending on the skills of the one playing it.
November 6th brings us National Saxophone Day.
It is held each anniversary of the birth of Antoine-Joseph ‘Adolphe’ Sax, the inventor of the saxophone.
One of my favorite musicians was the late great Clarence Clemons who played the saxophone for the East Street Band and various other solo endeavors.
He passed this worldly existence on June 18, 2011 but prior to that time gave the instrument a power and range uncommon on the world stage.
The saxophone is utilized in both classical and jazz music and it imparts it's imprimatur on each and every piece in which it is utilized.
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- November 5, 2021
- Bank Transfer Day 2021
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I used to be a customer of the local credit union. Business with them was totally unsatisfactory. First of all, they think they own you and have this requirement to treat you like an irresponsible child though you earn much more than they do.
Secondly they incorporate this insipid stance of treating the "customer" like some "member" subject to any rule they capriciously make up on the fly.
Needless to say I left in a huff never to return.
I see these poor smucks on television doing ads for the credit union and think how utterly sheeple these low end earners appear bragging about their nothing relationship with a valueless institution.
I'm left feeling that my fellow humans should be bitch slapped like the credit union's bitch they appear.
Today is Bank Transfer Day.
Initially formed as a consumer activism movement whereby persons were beckoned to switch from their commercial bank to a so-called not-for-profit credit unions with an imposed deadline of November 5, 2011.
While I view a lot of the fees imposed by banks as ridiculous and their customer service abysmal with outsourcing to compensate for incompetent IT departments, the credit unions are just as bad with a different set of violations to shove up your ass at the drop of a hat.
Can you say CUNA Mutual, boys and girls?
Needless to say the recurrence of Bank Transfer Day has neither inspired me to return to the godforsaken finances of Credit Unions and I'd just as soon never see some of the lamer infantile officers in those institutions ever again.
Give me the title of "customer" over "member" any day.
Boo !
See also:
Bank Transfer Day 2019
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- November 4, 2021
- The Wizard of Oz first televised 65 years ago
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When I was a kid I used to catch The Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Bert Lahr at every opportunity — and it was a thrilling time for me personally.
It had one of those magical moment connotations in my mind like many of the holiday specials I used to watch and it excited me to realize the treat I was about to enjoy.
The film The Wizard of Oz from 1939 aired on television for the first time in 1956 and was seen by an estimated 45 million viewers.
That viewing was 65 years ago and would make the anniversary a year younger than me. Suffice it to say that my viewings ocurred years later because these are memories of the time I was in elementary school in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Over the years it enjoyed repeated airings on TV and these helped make the movie the enduring classic. I used to watch each and every one I encountered while sitting before the tube.
One of those things about it I recall is just how endearing it became in my lifetime and how I could stop everything for the duration of it's showing.
Now, I just flip the channel. It's sad to note how my brazen tastes have devolved over the years — and I think it's a function of CGI and that inability to shock me like those special effects of days gone by did so well.
Ah, to go back and do it all over again.
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- November 3, 2021
- My Sister had a heart attack
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Smoking is hazardous to your heath. My sister smokes and ended up in the hospital.
She said the trouble began last Thursday. She ended up in the hospital when the pain became too much to bear.
This was Saturday. She toughed it out until she her pain tolerance broke down. She said that the administration of a nitroglycerin patch during initial treatment provided virtually immediate relief.
They did a heart cath lab procedure and she ended up with a stent to treat an almost totally occluded coronary artery to the tune of 98-99% blockage. One of the coronary vessels was characterized as "collapsed" and was judged untreatable.
It seems that her denial regarding smoking ALL THESE YEARS was not believed by her heart.
When you have a 4 vessel bypass it is not a good idea to continue smoking.
It's a sad notion that her home situation is not conducive to a healthier lifestyle.
Sadder still the fact that you walk into a house and are overwhelmed by the thick second hand smoke permeating the entire living space.
I am reticent to enter the place now. You take your life into your own hands just trying to be socially aware.
It is a difficult matter to make your feelings known regarding this blatant disregard for healthy lifestyle choices.
My family seems to fight me tooth and nail when I decline to both ignore and condone these activities.
I'm left feeling that I am simply to remain complacent and just let her finish killing herself off.
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- November 2, 2021
- Procrastination strikes again
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Sunday I was installing my new SSL/TLS certificates which I had received a couple of months prior to that time ...
I don't know what I'd been doing but it's far more fiscally responsible to place a credential for which you pay money in effect at the earliest moment feasible.
Suffice it to say that waiting to install a certificate loses you that time it covers while uninstalled. This may be multiplied by the number of certs purchased which in my case was four.
The install went well on the web server, so I thought.
The web stuff worked like gangbusters but the rdbms detected the new cert and reconfigured itself on the fly at that point in time.
This resulted in a load failure of the rdms at boot and I scratched my head then pondered a moment.
So ... I did a deep dive into the configuration files and manually fixed them.
The only linked stuff there was the demo mess supplied with the distro which I terminated with extreme prejudice and the errors went away.
The mail server was somewhat more convoluted without an apparent problem per se but appeared to be a file translation error that inserted some extraneous nonprinting character affecting the nested file logic. I couldn't "see" any error; but the command string interpreter was balking anyway.
So I copied the file from a backup location and edited it with the current cert data and voila it too straightened up and flew right.
The moral of the story is never put off something that needs to be done until you've forgot a lot of the specifics — which will have to be rediscovered on the fly.
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- November 1, 2021
- All Saints Day 2021
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Unfortunately my life has been far from saintly. Whereas I would like to say that I've been good my entire life, I haven't really attempted 'goodness' as an activity of daily living until relatively recently in my existence.
Luckily, my faith teaches me that the straight and narrow isn't so much a requirement as repentence and making the attempt to do better.
Such it is with me, imperfect but forgiven.
All Saints Day aka All Hallows Day aka Hallowmas is the day after All Hallows Eve aka Halloween.
It is a feast day celebrated on 1st November by Anglicans and Roman Catholics.
It is said that one candle is lighted near the tomb of a loved one as an offering for their soul to escape purgatory and enter heaven.
It is an opportunity for believers to remember all saints and martyrs, known and unknown, throughout Christian history.
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- October 31, 2021
- Happy Halloween 2021
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- October 30, 2021
- Mischief Night 2021
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There was a time in my younger years when I engaged in vandalism.
Unfortunately those consequences I was made to suffer as a result created a reticence in my personality for anything resembling a repeat performance.
Typically, I find vandalism and vandals abhorrent and will chastise and shun them.
Today is the vandal holiday known as Mischief Night. It is sometimes observed on November 4th or May 1st.
Typically the evening finds children and teenagers engaging in various pranks and yes ... even vandalism under the cover of darkness.
It is aka a variety of names including Devil's Night and Gate Night among others.
The observance goes back to the late 1700s where it is said to arise from the encouragement of a headmaster at a school play.
It hit the US newspapers around the 1930's and 1940's.
Here, the observance of Mischief Night is generally recognized as primarily a New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan phenomenon but they certainly don't have the only pranksters and vandals on the planet.
I have a long list of things to do on Mischief Night but decline to share these in an effort to suppress the ideas.
I view the entire notion as an excuse for the poorly behaved to act upon their less than civil impulses.
See also:
Mischief Night
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- October 29, 2021
- National Cat Day 2021
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Not a cat fan. Had to become cat tolerant because I was driving my neighbor crazy with the catching of cats in traps.
I decided when I caught hers to cease and desist so I let it go in her yard, apologized, and never caught another to take it to the animal control office on Ball Park Road in Lexington for euthanasia.
Sometimes you have to try to get along.
Today is National Cat Day. The observance is aimed at raising awareness about the needs of rescue cats all over.
The present count of local area strays and ferals needing rescue is in the thousands.
The day also emphasizes the need for spaying and neutering cats in an effort at populaton control.
Stats indicate that in the US about 3.4 million cats are taken to animal rescue shelters each year. 1.4 million of these end up being euthanized.
National Cat Day was created by pet activist Colleen Paige in 2005. It is held each year on October 29th.
I try to be more cat tolerant in honor of my neighbor Janet. We get along much better than we used to I feel largely because of this adjustment in my attitudes.
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- October 28, 2021
- National Chocolate Day 2021
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Cacao nibs are a favorite snack of mine. They provide a smattering of antioxidants which neutralize free radicals (thank you Denham Harman) and prevent subsequent oxadative stress.
They also contain polyphenols and theobromine which are cholesterol regulators and provide for the raising of the high density lipoproteins (good fat) while not affecting the low density lipoproteins (bad fat).
Cacao is the source of chocolate and there is a direct correlation of what cacao does to the effects of chocolate on the body.
There are compounds and minerals in chocolate which reduce insulin resistance and inflammation and the dark variety in particular is thought to improve brain function and diminish degeneration of the nervous system. However, one should be consuming the dark, less sweet varieties to abstain from the heavy sugar load of the milk chocolate so many of us eat ...
The addition of dark chocolate to your diet indicates a need for moderation and watching the high in fat and calories it contains.
October 28 finds another National Chocolate Day in the US. Not to be confused with the globalist knock off World Chocolate Day which is on July 7 ... this is a US construct for we who live in the United States.
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- October 28, 2021
- International Animation Day 2021
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When I was a kid I was heavily into animated entertainment.
I loved the old Bob Clampett series called Beany and Cecil, I was enamoured with Astroboy, even Clutch Cargo and Space Angel.
You would think this love would have followed me into my present ... but alas it was not to be.
I find that the manga and anime simply didn't hold my interest. This was likely a function of my need to immerse into the technical literature of the times and now I don't watch television like I used to.
Today we have another International Animation Day held each October 28 under the auspices of the International Animated Film Association since 2002.
It celebrates the art of animation.
Sapphire Sandalo is an animator. I know her from other genres such as podcasting and I enjoy her work on television very much.
She worked as an animator and character designer for many commercials and TV series for FXX, Comedy Central, Adult Swim, and MTV.
Looking over her resume as an animator she is very qualified to represent the art hands down.
She works two series I catch periodically called "Paranormal Caught On Camera" and "Paranormal Nightshift" on Travel Channel.
Sapphire's animation talents were a hidden gem in that interest she cultivated in me over the long time I have watched her on television — I mean, seeing how it IS a main claim to fame.
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- October 27, 2021
- The First National Civics Day
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In this age of woke libtard incursions into liberty and the Marxist socialist blithering idiots trying to degrade and destroy the nation October 27th brings us the first National Civics Day.
Founded this year under the auspices of the Long Island University’s Roosevelt School and The Society of Presidential Descendents founded National Civics Day in 2021 the day celebrates the importance of civic education all across America and the date commemorates the date the Federalist Papers were first published on October 27, 1787.
These documents were published by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison in the form of 85 essays under the pen name “Publiu" and served as a foundation for the United States Constitution.
Civic education as a social science prepares students for their roles as citizens. The false indoctrination of the public school systems has lead so many students astray over the years that too many have no concept of civics and how it relates to The Republic and what the nation is all about.
The aims of a civics education include but are not limited too improvement in critical thinking so you don't end up a stupid libtard toad like we see hopping around everywhere.
Improved communication skills which are relevant to the greater good and not simply a whiny message from some triggered pussy hat wearing imbecile, a spirit of community service and engagement so we can replace the scoundrels who are in office for personal gain like the Clintons, the Obamas, the Bushs, the Bidens, the Harris and too many others there for the wrong reasons and subjecting the rest of us to there whims.
So, even though the day is not an officially sanctioned observance I feel that those who are civics oriented are more likely to vote, volunteer, engage in political discussions at home, work on community projects, speak publicly, and communicate with elected officials.
Civics education and participation surely can't hurt.
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- October 27, 2021
- Constantine's Vision of the Cross
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Constantine I, aka Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from 306 to 337.
He served with distinction under the Roman emperors Diocletian and Galerius.
He made Christianity the main religion of Rome and created Constantinople, his chosen eastern capital city — which became the most powerful city in the world.
His reign is said to be the demarcation between ancient history and the Middle Ages.
It is recorded that on the evening of October 27 as his armies preparing for the upcoming battle in the year 312 Constantine is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross.
This appeared as a cross of light in the heavens above the sun which bore inscription In Hoc Signo Vinces which means "In this sign thou shalt conquer".
It is further recorded that this vision led him to fight under the protection of the Christian God.
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- October 26, 2021
- Aunt Lona's Funeral
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Sunday, October 24th found me at Salley Oakview Cemetery attending the funeral of my dearly departed Aunt Lona.
Though I recognized quite a few of those present I was content to maintain a background position for the ceremony, touching her casket and saying a prayer just prior to the commencement of services.
It was a hot day to be full blown autumn and I was happy that my mother was seated as I stood there in the sun. However, my aunt deserved my attentions on that day having been distant thoughout her life and seeking justification in my own mind of this neglect I encounter with increasing frequency as I grow older.
My last visit with her was at her home in Wagener, South Carolina when I saw her in her yard while driving past. I stopped and we chatted for a half hour or so and it was a very pleasant interlude. We discussed many different topics and she touched on her happiness over her son in law's success in his own business and the glow of pride for his accomplishments lit up her countenance as she smiled and continued.
I have often wondered why such events don't happen with more frequency in my life.
Another aspect somewhat embarrassing to me is the fact that I did not recognize my dear old friend Charlie Tyler who conducted the service and did a grand job as well. He and his wife sang two hymns and I tell you, me not remembering him nor even reading the program until I returned home is telling on my level of socialization and comportment.
The sum total of these events has led me down the path of introspection for I am an unsocial animal to say the least.
I should at least be more attentive regarding those for whom I care.
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