Welcome
- August 8, 2021
- International Cat Day 2021
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I know a lot of cat people. I know people who've had cats. I know people who've put cats down. I personally have caught felines only to transport them to the animal shelter on Ball Park Road in Lexington for euthanasia. So ... perhaps I'm not a cat person.
I've had to come to an understanding with my neighbor regarding her many cats. Where as I formerly found myself at odds with them, I decided that I did not want to cause hate and discontent nor hard feelings or upset her so I set aside my problems with cats on her behalf.
I now allow them free range through my yard and I don't give them any crap, try to catch them or menace them in any way. I will even give her various canned goods like tuna and such for them as well.
I try to be a nice guy whenever possible. The cat thing was a slow difficult lesson in tolerance for me personally.
Today is International Cat Day. It is a celebration transpires each August 8th. It's origin is a 2002 International Fund for Animal Welfare impetus to raise the awareness of cats and learn ways to aid in their protection.
In 2020 International Cat Care which is a British nonprofit assumed the day in an effort to improve the health and welfare of domestic cats worldwide. They have been in operation since 1958.
So while I am not a cat person and have been known to treat cats callously I have attempted to evolve and amend my ways.
Kitty kitty kitty.
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- August 7, 2021
- Purple Heart Day 2021
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I was never a war hero. I wasn't even a great sailor.
I didn't shirk my duties but my attitude was far less than it could have and should have been.
This is a function of social unawareness and a lack of grasping the big picture.
When you are an impetuous young person you think you'll live forever and that none of your harsh treatment of others will ever come back to haunt you.
Unfortunately, my bad deeds and lack of enthusiasm not only came back to revisit me, but got me good.
August 7 is Purple Heart Day and is about our war wounded and war dead. Those killed or wounded in war have served with distinction while representing their country in wartime.
All gave some. Some gave all.
Military and veteran organizations are at the forefront of honoring these heroes. I was never a war hero.
Other entities also recognize and honor those who have received the Purple Heart.
All I can do is buy creature comforts for the veterans like shaving cream and cards and entertainment publications, crayons, and such for delivery to the wards at the Dorn VA hospital.
It affords me some feeling of coming to terms with what should have been a better enlistment on my part. When I recognize deficiencies in myself I always try to do better.
Honor is what the military decoration is all about. My attitude for veterans is far different than it once was.
This is because I've been immersed in what a lot of it was all about and had the opportunity to consider who I was in that process.
Sometimes we find ourselves lacking and must deal with it in the name of our own peace of mind.
Respect.
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- August 6, 2021
- Andy Warhol was here
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Andy Warhol was actually well before my time. His heyday found me a stupid adolescent immersed in fantasy land without a real direction thinking I was going to become something for which I was ill prepared.
He was born Andrew Warhola on August 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and died on Tebruary 22, 1987 at age 58 in New York City.
He was an artist, film director, and producer and became an icon in the genre called 'pop art' which flourished in the tacky 1960s and 1970s.
His education was completed at the Carnegie Institute of Technology at Carnegie Mellon University where he prepared for those projects in printmaking, photography, painting, and cinema for which he would become famous.
He was one to experiment profusely with artistic expression. He made money in advertising, and played on celebrity culture becoming quite the mixed media virtuoso.
He was born and raised in Pittsburgh was became a successful commercial illustrator. He did exhibitions early on which cultivated interest in his work and a reputation in art circles where he became known as an influential and controversial artist.
He had a studio in New York called The Factory which attracted intellectuals, drag queens, playwrights, persons of artistic interests with little interest in conventional standards of behavior, Hollywood celebrities, and patrons who funded his work.
He promoted a clique of various persons who became known as Warhol superstars who were such only because he declared them so. He is also credited as originating the widely used expression "15 minutes of fame".
He managed and produced an experimental rock band called The Velvet Underground and founded Interview magazine. He was a prolific author and wrote many books, the most significant of which were those about his personal philosophy.
He lived openly as a gay man before the gay liberation movement. In June 1968, he was almost killed by radical feminist and author Valerie Solanas who popped a cap in him inside his own studio.
Andy Warhol died of cardiac arrhythmia in February 1987 at the age of 58 following gallbladder surgery.
I was never a fan. I did recognize him and many in his circle of friends with their Studio 54 mentality which was beyond my experiential inventory. Also the gay thing would have been problematic for a red neck US Navy sailor such as that I became.
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- August 5, 2021
- A distinct lack of choices
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I really HATE to whine, but when all a vendor can do is hang a bunch of mass produced Dell and HP computers in front of my face because their buyers simply can't do the job I scoff when they expect me to make a purchase.
First of all, I don't do Dell. Not for any reason. Not ever. I don't like the company. I don't like the machines. I don't like their business model. I don't like the stupid people who buy them. I stopped buying Alienware because of them. HP gets the same disinterest and were Compaq around I'd give them a nice large hot load of crap public and messy too.
When you have the manufacturing infrastructure to tool a motherboard etch and assemble in mass you simply don't care about the requirements of the user. You want the user to adapt to what you provide. Call me a purist, but it just doesn't provide the experience for which I'm looking.
There comes a time when money talks and bullcrap walks. All you vendors depending on HP and Dell to fund your existence might want to consider the quality of your clientele. A person who buys these are the same low end skill-less individuals as their tastes in cookie cutter computing machinery. I suppose the steep decline of the intellectual aspects of human existence as evidenced by woke culture is primarily to blame.
I don't want to get off on a rant here but take a hike all of you. I'd just as soon build my own and I don't need support.
White Box computers are better by far.
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- August 4, 2021
- Coast Guard Day 2021
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My main girl is a coastie. Locally, she doesn't have a lot in the way of people who really appreciate her status in military life because the bulk of them are either land lubbers or didn't do any military service at all.
After I met her I stopped using the term 'puddle pirates' to refer to the coast guard as I did while on active duty out of respect for her rank and work in maritime security.
Being a Navy veteran myself I always stand in awe and give proper respect, deference, and homage to her for her accomplishments as a chief petty officer of the line.
Today is Coast Guard Day. It goes down each August 4 to commemorate the founding of the United States Coast Guard (as the Revenue Marine) on August 4, 1790, by then-Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.
Congress authorized the building of a fleet of the first ten Revenue Service cutters on that date. They were for enforcement of the first tariffs set by the US Congress enacted under the auspices of the US Constitution. The motto of the Coast Guard is Semper Paratus which means "always ready" or "ever ready".
She dutifully and cheerfully attends scheduled drill traveling out of state to do so. Such dedication.
So Chiefie ... happy Coast Guard Day Day to you !
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- August 3, 2021
- Columbus set sail 529 years ago
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So the foolish leftist libtards who are out to rewrite history because they think everything that happened therein represents racism and as such should be stricken from the record regardless of the factual nature of factual events because this is what the leftist libtard public education system taught them will likely decline to celebrate the date Columbus set sail for the Indies in 1492.
Yes, when these leftists created by the indoctrination of the public school system finally realize just how stupid they are because of that input of a politicized educational system created by the democrats more concerned with misguidance and presenting falsehoods than facts there will likely be a reckoning.
Like it or not, on this day in 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail on his first voyage with three ships, Santa María, Pinta and Niña from Palos de la Frontera, Spain for the "Indies".
He ended up discovering America somewhat before Amerigo Vespucci for whom the continent is named, as he demonstrated to Europeans that the New World was not Asia but a previously unknown continent.
So this being the case I suppose the libtards can just suck it with their ignorant educators.
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- August 2, 2021
- Remembering Carroll O'Connor
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One of those constants in my childhood was All in the Family. My dad loved the show and we typically watched it and don't recall missing an episode. Then there was In the Heat of the Night about a Mississippi police chief and the vague deep south resonance of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.
John Carroll O'Connor was born August 2, 1924 in Manhattan. He passed at age 76 on June 21, 2001 in Culver City, California. He was an actor, producer, and director of various dramatic productions over the years.
Having served in the Merchant Marines in World War II, he became a television icon for those 40 years he remained active. My late biological father was particularly fond of his character Archie Bunker from the sitcom All in the Family which ran the decade of the 1970s from 71 through 79. Needless to say I watched a fair amount of it ... til I enlisted in the Navy on June 10, 1976.
There were spinoffs and other productions such asi that other family favorite In the Heat of the Night — which ran from 1988 thought 1995 where he played Sparta, Mississippi police chief William "Bill" Gillespie. This was another show I watched frequently as it was on the tube while I was in front of it. Other roles performed by Mr O'Connor included, he received 5 Emmys and 2 golden globes for his acting prowess.
On March 28, 1995, O'Connor's adopted son Hugh, who began life as a six day old boy in Rome and grew to be a featured character on In the Heat of the Night took his own life after a long battle with drug addiction. This had a profound effect on the aging O'Connor who went on television to out one Harry Perzigian who was allegedly Hugh's pusher. I was enthralled by his acumen and total lack of fear at this public forceful confrontation.
Also, I can never forget the stupendous grief his appearance in this matter projected. Following his son's passing, Mr O'Connor appeared in various PSAs for the Partnership for a Drug Free America. He devoted the rest of his life working to raise awareness about drug addiction.
Carroll O'Connor died on June 21, 2001 in Culver City, California, from a heart attack secondary to complications from diabetes at age 76. He is interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.
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- August 1, 2021
- World Scout Scarf Day 2021
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Nobody was more proud to be a cub scout than me.
I recall back in Aragona Village at Virginia Beach those meetings conducted by my mother and a few of her cohorts in the 'Den Mother' section of the organization. It was a blissful time and I don't remember when it all ended ...
Only that I miss the carefree fun nature of those days even now.
It was a more innocent time when I knew little about the evil left and how they would eventually invade, endanger, and emperil scouting with this woke notion that girls should be permitted membership in the Boy Scouts. It is no longer the organization I once cherished.
World Scout Scarf Day is held internationally on August 1.
It is a time for all active and former scouts to wear their scout scarfs in public in the name of the "Spirit of Scouting".
The date of the event corresponds to the formation of the very first Scout Camp on Brownsea Island in 1907.
The scarf is a symbol of the goal of scouting to leave the world as a bit better a place than we had found it.
This, of course is lost on the leftists who choose to ruin everything they can in that contrary illogical nothingness and utter stupidity they continually pursue.
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- July 31, 2021
- August 2021 is upon us
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Today is the last day of July. August is upon us.
The hot weather characteristics of this time of year has been ramping up over the past few weeks and it's what my late friend Jerry Landry characterized as 'oppressively hot' so many times while embarking on liberty during our time in the Navy.
The Old Farmer's Almanac reports that temperatures and precipitation will be below average while the heat and humidity will remain up there. The humidity lends itself to that sensation of higher temperatures anyway.
Personally, I stopped trying to be a weather warrior and I am quite content to retire to the conditioned environment of my three ton HVAC which cools quite well, particularly in the presence of my brand new 4500 sq ft dehumidifier.
Suffice it to say I won't be purusing a lot of activity though there are many things I could and should be doing.
I'm getting way too old for the pursuit of heatstroke. I will attempt to maintain hydration and avoid the brunt of the hottest month of Summer !
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- July 30, 2021
- Arnold Schwarzenegger seen better days
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I once thought Arnold Schwarzenegger to be the epitome of public personalities with his bodybuilding, political success, and movie career. Since then revelations of infidelity and some of his public flippance in the political arena has turned me off to him ... though I still can be persuaded to see yet another terminator movie without much cajoling.
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was born July 30, 1947 in Thal, Austria. He is a retired bodybuilder, actor, producer, businessman, and former politician who served as the 38th governor of California from 2003 to 2011.
As of 2021, he is the most recent Republican governor of California the thought of which really doesn't thrill me at all.
He was Chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports from January 22, 1990 through May 27, 1993 working under two presidential administrations.
He began lifting weights at the age of 15 and won Mr Universe at 20. He is author of many books and articles on the subject of body building.
His acting career began with Conan the Barbarian in 1982 and a slew of performances as various iterations of The Terminator — which was my personal favorite for a very long time. He also did Predator in 1987, Total Recall in 1990, True Lies in 1994, a couple of fluff pieces like Twins in 1988 and Kindergarten Cop in 1990, Junior in 1994, and Red Heat, which I enjoyed as well in 1988. Danko. You're welcome. Indeed.
He founded a film production company called Oak Productions likely in homage to his nickname 'The Austrian Oak' from his body building days.
He married Maria Shriver but they separated in 2011 following admission of fathering a child with their housemaid in 1997. Their divorce became final in 2017. Alas, just another Hollywood slut who can't be faithful to anything except those base instincts which surface in many of us.
Suffice it to say I was a big fan but now I have limited enjoyment of his work and I'm not swooft regarding his personal life — not that it's any of my concern. I suppose that matter should rightly remain between Mr Schwarzenegger and Ms Shriver. Sargent and Eunice would likely be appalled.
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- July 29, 2021
- International Tiger Day 2021
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I have an aversion to big cats when they're up close and personal.
It all stems from a visit to the local zoo when a lioness in an enclosure behind a moat got rowdy looking at me in my brand-new large bulky khaki colored down filled overcoat then began roaring loudly and frequently — catching the attention of both the friends with whom I arrived and those standing around; all of whom appeared highly amused.
It was as though the lioness had encountered a wildebeest and dinner was served ...
I never returned to the zoo after this incident.
Today is Global Tiger Day aka International Tiger Day.
It is held annually each 29th of July under the auspices of the Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit in Russia and is a vehicle to raise public awareness of tiger conservation and those associated issues.
I am always a proponent of protecting the natural habitats of creatures in the wild and I am particularly abhorrent to those individuals who would enter and kill these majestic animals in the name of profit.
Sometimes we act as though we 'own' everything on the planet when we do not.
I believe in 'live and let live' by and large and would never condone poaching of any creature minding it's own business of living in it's own habitat.
I simply don't understand where some persons (and jurisdictions) get off. Anything for a buck including extinction of species appears to be the order of the day.
However, all of this being said I would just as soon not be cat food either if you don't mind horribly.
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- July 28, 2021
- Thomas Cromwell executed in 1540
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On this day in 1540 The Right Honourable Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex was murdered by King Henry VIII ... who had a penchant for executing people on trumped up charges as well as mere whims. The cruel monarch lived to regret killing his friend after retrospect convinced him that the advice and support of Cromwell was more important than any political matter his debauched court could contrive.
Cromwell was a proponent of the English Reformation and he was instrumental in engineering various maneuvers involving the kings marriages. He made many enemies during his heyday. The beginning of the end for him was arranging the king's marriage to the homely (depending mostly on the portrait viewed) German princess Anne of Cleves, who Henry VIII ultimately found repulsive to the point of annulment after six months.
Cromwell was arraigned under a bill of attainder and executed for treason and heresy on Tower Hill on July 28, 1540. The king later expressed regret at the loss of his chief minister. Henry soon realised the enormity of his mistake in having such an able and loyal minister put to death.
Having taken Cromwell for granted all those years he suddenly found himself without the brilliant and able administrator that he had made matters of state look easy. That bitter realization that none around could even approach Cromwell’s ability to take care of business effectively.
Henry even transferred blame to his ministers saying that "the light pretexts and false accusations" they made caused him to to have the most faithful servant he had ever had put to death.
Such is the nature of power gone mad. Henry VIII grew from a handsome witty and capable young royal to become a cruel self-serving despotic tyrant and murderer without redeeming virtue. So much for the Tudors.
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- July 27, 2021
- Too much IP Geolocation appears intentionally FAULTY
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IP Geolocation is supposedly a system by which your geographic location is determined by your IP address. Theoretically, Internet Protocol geolocation is software supposedly capable of deducing the geographic position of a device connected to the Internet.
However, for this to work that methodology by which the IP address is interpolated must be sound. This is where the individuals doing the work make or break the process.
HOWEVER, search engines obviously don't feel the need to get the thing right because increasingly I find myself being placed in foreign lands based on their interpretation of IP geolocation ...
For example, I live in West Columbia, South Carolina while google places me in Raleigh, North Carolina and all of their recommendations are oriented 240 miles to the North and are decidedly less than useful to me personally.
Why bother ?
The IP Geolocation which implements whois data gets it right. The idiots extrapolating subnets on their own don't. I have raised concerns with the search engine shitbirds to no avail.
I engage numerous IP geolocation sites and they get everything correctly because they correlate their database to the whois data for the address(es) in question. When my CIDR range is in the mix they come up with my name, address, phone number, and everything else associated with my uplink provider and registrar records of my network.
While I feel sure that the assholes at google and bing are simply outsourcing the technology and using whatever is provided, when you take it upon yourself to specify technological assumptions you need to at least ATTEMPT the due diligence to make sure your stupid data is correct lest you lose credibility.
Besides, it renders all the shopping and ad mess they value so highly a moot point when it's all too far away and irrelevant to be practical.
These stupid search engines don't care if their data is correct. Fake news. Fake data. It's all bull anymore.
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- July 26, 2021
- Some of us like purity
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noun: purity
pu·ri·ty
/ˈpyo͝orədē/
Freedom from adulteration or contamination; as in
"the purity of our drinking water"
My little sweet red headed girl gave me a Brita filter pitcher some time back. I was using it at work up until the time they ran me off. It was among my possessions in the box I received a week or so after I left work.
Nowadays I use it each morning to fill the coffee pot for my daily 2 cups which I drink from my pint bone china mug ...
I utilize a distiller for my drinking water. I find I don't trust tap water nor do I care for the taste. If I could make my ice with distilled water I would, but it gets produced in the freezer by the installed icemaker which is attached to tap water.
Needless to say, my ice consumption is little to none with my preference being tepid drinking water. I usually dump the ice maker bin in the yard once a day or so ... but it is a hoss, producing mass quantities of ice cubes — which occasionally become in high demand during those occasional visits by thirsty visitors.
So I have distilled water filtered one last time by the Brita filter installed in the pitcher. I would think that this makes for pretty doggone pure water for that coffee with which I jack myself up each morning around yon 6 am.
Thank you, poopsie.
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