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- September 13, 2017
- psvue has ENDED my Streaming Saga
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Well, I've pretty much been the full gamut of streaming television providers and finally settled on psvue because it's performance is superior hands down.
Now then, I was happy with hulu until their web page ticked me off and so I cancelled. I tried to give them another chance and all they could do is send me to said offending web page to re-establish service.
I told them that sending a customer back to the thing which lost them the business in the first place wasn't too bright. I haven't been back there, either.
Then there was sling and the nice interface but lousy service. The drop offs. The endless buffering. I simply wasn't getting what I was paying for. This sent me to psvue on a whim.
Since I have been using psvue for my streaming needs it has provided that same superior bandwidth provisioning of hulu and netflix (which I still use, by the way) ... and for five dollars more a month I've got a lot more choices coming down that superior pipe and quite frankly I wanted to weep with human gratitude for the serendipitous arrival of psvue in my life.
Leave it to a gaming provider to fully understand bandwidth and other performance provisioning considerations.
The moral of the story is all I wanted was that for which I was paying. I liked sling okay but it simply can't provide the content worth diddley ... and of course, the annoying web interface will also lose you business as well stupid hulu.
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- September 12, 2017
- Zen and the Art of the Shart
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The shart. That episodic occurrence of both gaseous and solids when all a person thought they were passing was gas.
Alas, I'm told by sufficient authority that the shart is a fact of life ...
plus the older you get the more likely it is to occur. Even though it is said that "we all do it" I would prefer to lie and say it never happens to me.
Oh the humanity. Though it hasn't reached the point that I'm packing an emergency change of drawers kit in my truck I could certainly do with considerably less of those unauthorized accesses of the chute ... like NEVER.
I mean, really.
So if you find yourself in the mood for a little gaseous humor in the elevator just make sure you're not about to produce a dab of trowser chili for your trouble.
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- September 11, 2017
- Remember
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- September 10, 2017
- Notebook Sprucing
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Today I'll be visiting mom at her place. We'll have a nice lunch and deal with any technical issues which may arise.
Seeing how she says her yard dosen't need mowing I went ahead and mowed my weeds yesterday. It looks so much better when everything is quasi-the-same-height and the leaves are all mulched up. I wanted everything ready for the good rain I anticipate from the outer bands of Irma.
Then I'm headed to Marks house. He recently acquired a new notebook and wants it to be spruced up a smidge. I'm going to optimize the thing and turn off a lot of those services Microsoft might like but tend to suck up resources better utilized in those applications he wants to use.
There is also an application migration issue which arose late in our conversation of his requirements and we're going to try and give that a go as well. As a rule I don't do computers in the private sector anymore. Mark is an exception of which there are very few.
Then I intend to vege out in front of the teevee as long as there is no disruption from the storm. In case of that contingency I'll simply have to play it by ear and see what happens.
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- September 9, 2017
- On Again Off Again
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So Irma has shifted and will likely provide little more than outer bands to South Carolina. Given the exceedingly inaccurate forecasts of the storm path I pretty much am left not knowing what to feel.
After trudging through about 20 stores looking for distilled water I was all prepared to chug the tap stuff as required and just see what happens when a chance trip to the Walmart grocery on Knox Abbott Drive revealed a fortuitous cache of gallon jugs of the distilled stuff I like. I now feel that I'm packing all the water that I need after leaving just 4 jugs on the store shelf.
We're on operational shutdown for Monday. I was hoping to avoid this, but they are being proactive on the safety front and don't want to risk employee accidents and so forth. My worst fear in all this hurricaine mess has been realized.
I hope that everyone else escapes the storm as well as I have. It is my understanding that hurricaine systems loose a lot of energy passing over land and the latest path is miles inland and on the western side of the eastern continental divide ... This likely means there will be even less impact from rising rivers and streams as the bulk of the water is shed down the western slope.
The unpredictability of the weather appears to remain despite the technology and modeling at our disposal.
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- September 8, 2017
- Irma Approaches
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So the hurricaine has us dead in the cone of probability ... after I thought we'd likely be a goodly miss. So I went out and bought a few items in preparation for the storm — things like TP for my bung hole, paper towels, a few personal hygiene supplies and water NOT.
There was no water. None of the distilled stuff I prefer. None of the spring stuff I hate. None of the purified stuff I hate even more. There was none on the shelves; not even the packages of bottled drinking water.
Suffice it to say that my pursuit will continue in a somewhat lackluster fashion when I venture out prior to work and I'm not really even hopeful for success at this late juncture.
The alternatives are tap water and in the event of a boil advisory I'll be headed to moms to snag a bottle of drinking water or two.
I had about five gallons at the start of the week which I squandered on tea at work. I like to make these pots of Roobios and Tulse with distilled water and that has been my downfall in these particular hurricaine preparations.
Better luck next time.
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- September 7, 2017
- National Beer Lovers Day
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Today is no longer my day.
Once quite the beer drinker; those days passed sometime in the early 1980s as my interests turned toward other forms of recreational refreshment — though I have been known to sip or slam one down in recent history.
I used to be found each Friday evening at The Villa in Five Points with the Emergency Room crew after the shift.
Then I went into the Navy and of course, beer was still something I indulged with the frequency and gusto of a sailor.
Then I evolved into this 'other creature' and became less the beer drinker with periodic forays into my old ways ... such as parties and such.
Now, I can't tell you when the last time I have indulged. Usually it is offered during some visit and I must admit I like them more than I might admit otherwise.
I just don't include it on the grocery list or actively pursue some bar stool from which to perch and drink.
I don't begrudge others the indulgence for in my heyday I was quite the imbiber.
I try to remember this when I am in the company of others who may have had one or two or three or four too many !
My tastes in beer include the full gamut of drafts and bottled beers with canned varieties bringing up the distant rear of the pack.
The oddest thing in my memory is my aversion to food with beer. I've had a number of friends tell me that it's odd as well.
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- September 6, 2017
- Images of Autumn
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I have vivid images of Autumn in my memories. Most colorful are those from Blackfoot, Idaho where the flowers and fruit trees flourished and the first nip of fall brought activities of the harvest and holidays into the heart of that child which was me.
I remember the drawing and play doh of that time and engaging the artistic forms of a child's whimsy and not having a serious care in the world. I remember first and second grades at Irving School with Mrs Rowe and Mrs Stalker and the crafts and studies and books.
Those trips up town to the movie theater and excursions with grandma to the dime store where I was in constant wonder of what tomorrow might bring. I remember that treasure chest coin bank and the pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters and the snow upon the ground.
As the frost on the pumpkin grows dimmer in my mind I sometimes travel back to that simpler place in time. With my thoughts of Autumn and how it became the best of times for for that little boy who grew into the man that is me.
September
A road like brown ribbon
A sky that is blue
A forest of green
With that sky peeping through.
Asters, deep purple,
A grasshopper's call,
Today it is summer,
Tomorrow is fall.
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- September 5, 2017
- Tech is on a Roll
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From robotic barristas to 700 dollar cold press juice machines with wifi which require the company's brand of produce and wifi to test prior to operation ... tech is really going off the deep end.
I don't know, call me old fashioned but I think I prefer a young lady to make my coffee and a non-internet connected juicer which isn't a hot mess of technology gone mad.
As I grow older I have cultivated an appreciation for manual systems and I am not so interested in "the show" as I am that product which results.
Do I really need a networked car with systems which may be hacked remotely even as I am driving down the road ? I don't really think so.
Suffice it to say that while tech has it's place in my life as it does everywhere else; I am satisfied to keep it reined in to those applications I choose and I will not purchase anything which forces it upon me.
After all, if people cannot control tech then it's tech that will control people.
AI be damned.
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- September 4, 2017
- Labor Day
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Another Labor Day is upon us.
The day is held in honor of we who work; not the constituents of Bernie Sanders who simply want to shirk then be given our money.
Here the day is celebrated on the first Monday in September. Elsewhere the day may be observed on the first of May.
I must admit that Labor Day snuck up on my this year. All of a sudden a three day weekend popped up and I had to ask why. In prior years the anticipation went for weeks before the fact.
This is likely due to the fact that anymore I'd just as soon be working as doing anything else. This is a function of getting on, I suppose. You wake up one day with a need for some place to go and something with which to occupy yourself in that effort to feel useful.
Labor Day marks the 'unofficial' end of Summer. The displays in the shopping areas bear witness to the fact that the holidays rapidly approach. In fact, my favorite time of the year is that fall through winter holiday season commencing with Halloween and ending with New Years Day ! At any rate I hope you have a great day and await the upcoming holidays with building anticipation as I do.
Happy Labor Day !
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- September 3, 2017
- I don't do Amazon anymore ...
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I have closed my Amazon account in perpetuity because they are counterproductive to my existence.
They think that all I have time for is jumping through their hoops like some trained dog.
In that sum total of security viz a viz taking things too far they sent me over Niagra Falls in the barrel of petty pains in the ass.
Though I prefer a variety of vendors, looks like walmart.com will get the vast bulk of their business.
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- September 2, 2017
- National Blueberry Popsicle Day
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When I was a kid I loved popsicles. Even in those Summer months at work a year or so ago Carmen used to bring in a bag or a box full and we'd all partake.
I fear that one of those things my old age has caused me to forget are those various indulgences I used to find so special. I fear that it is evidence for that diminished zest for life I realized was happening around the early 80s prior to full acceptance of the dreaded 'plan b' of the career kind.
Today is National Blueberry Popsicle Day ... yet another of those 'dubious' national holidays likely undeclared by congress. This day celebrates the popsicle, that flavored ice treat on a stick of the blueberry variety.
So any way — regardless of how the day became noteworthy or why we celebrate the blueberry popsicle I hope you can embrace the joy of youth and participate in a little frivolous fun !
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- September 1, 2017
- Google and Dissent
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Google has decided it efficacious to pursue academe and journalist critics ... just because it feels it can with impunity.
Pursuant to the loss of free speech elsewhere that 1998 motto "Don't be evil" of theirs has surfaced in a new underlying standard operating procedure which is nothing but stupefying evil.
If you disagree with google you run the risk of losing out in some business venture or position with which they may be involved.
Their ad services used to be sufficient for site operations in many instances where now a paygate is required to make ends meet. This is because you have to go through some circuitous set of mechanics to even show up on a page and they want to rule every aspect of your web experience.
Monopolies used to be illegal for a time in the United States. Over the years, the lobbyists and other bottom feeding vermin out to prey on anything and everything which may be available have tainted sound business with those shape charges favoring that pseudo search engine nouveau where rankings are bought and not the result of click metrics.
The business model of the world is faulty. It's a business model designed with bias and an uneven topology for those in business. The regulations which govern monopolies at the governmental level no longer work. It's time for the consumer to step in but too many of us are ignorant to the mechanics involved in products designed to appear as though they're search engines when in fact the topmost returns are "purchased" not the results of being "clicked upon".
Somehow the big picture is obscured in that cloud called ignorance of the customer ... that's you.
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- August 31, 2017
- National Trail Mix Day
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Now this is another one of those observances that I find rather dubious in the "National" connotation — inasmuch as I really don't believe that the day came into being by an act of congress ...
It's National Trail Mix Day, observing that mixture of dried fruit and nuts which I personally consume in mass quantities with great gusto. There are so many varieties with more or less of a "junk food" component and I am particularly fond of the mountain and tropical trail mix varieties.
Trail Mix is one of those commodities we can often find in the office. If I don't get it Steve or someone else will and I partook of some excellent organic tropical trail mix just today.
So even if congress didn't pass bill of declaration I hope you'll take a moment and enjoy a little trail mix. It couldn't hurt and many of those varieties available are simply delicious. Especially if you find yourself several hours from lunch and starving as I frequently find myself !
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