Welcome
- September 29, 2017
- World Heart Day
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World Heart Day is held each September 29 under the auspices of he World Heart Federation, a non governmental Swiss agency which promotes cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health.
They advocate small changes making powerful differences in the risk factors and disease processes themselves.
Their site is full of infographics and warning signs for heart attack and stroke and inasmuch as these two diseases remain the cause of death for most people it's a good idea to place your best foot forward and get attuned to the facts and remain "in the know".
Heart Healthy is more than just a buzz word. It's an attainable goal and way of life. So if you're so inclined mark World Heart Day as one of those meaningful observances people can have with one another.
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- September 28, 2017
- National Good Neighbor Day
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I am not what you would call a "good neighbor". I decline to be that bubbly effusive twit gushing over anything and everything baking goodies for those around me and generally being as nauseating as I can be.
There have been examples of good neighbors in my past ... but it's merely a transient apparition relegated to those far recesses of my memory when I recall all the others with whom I've been "neighbors".
Nothing wrong with being a good neighbor. I'm just not one.
Today is National Good Neighbor Day — a national holiday observed in the United States of America for a while now. Back in the year 2003, the annual day it is celebrated was changed to September 28. It had previously been observed on the fourth Sunday in September.
The creation of one Becky Mattson of Lakeside, Montana in the early 1970s it typifies those early post-1960s efforts to network and was an attempt to exemplify the importance of neighbors and being a "good" one in particular.
President Jimmy Carter signed Proclamation 4601 establishing it's observance on September 24, 1978. The Senate passed a resolution by Montana Senator Max Baucus to designate September 26 as National Good Neighbor Day. So here we sit on the cusp of what has been a cluster of good neighbor days about to go for it once again !
So happy good neighbor day, neighbor !
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- September 22, 2017
- Autumn Equinox
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- September 18, 2017
- National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day (NHAAD)
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.jpg "National HIV AIDS and Aging Awareness Day (NHAAD)")
I once viewed HIV and AIDS as existing remote from my existence.
I had felt as though the affectation had been avoided by me personally, i.e., that I had "dodged the bullet" so to speak until that fateful day that I learned in my late fifties that my childhood best friend had passed from the diease when we were 40 or so.
This ended my search for him abruptly and sadly for I understood the suffering he endured toward the end and he was a fine, polite, well-read, and urbane man who brought a lot to the table as it were whenever he was present and whatever he was doing.
Though I have been accused of being homophobic more than once — and despite the fact that I have spoken disdainfully of all things queer on multiple occasions, despite knowing those disease vectors —
That remorse of missing my chance to speak with him one last time remains with me to this day.
Today is National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day (NHAAD) which is held each September 18th under the auspices of The AIDS Institute.
It's focus are those risks and challenges facing an ever aging population regarding the prevention of HIV, it's testing, and therapeutics for those who may become infected with the viruses which cause AIDS.
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- September 17, 2017
- Harry Dean Stanton RIP
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Harry Dean Stanton
July 14, 1926 – September 15, 2017
American Character Actor, Singer, Musician
One of those quintessential character actors who spoke volumes in few words for all those years I've been alive was Harry Dean Stanton, who passed day before yesterday in Los Angeles at the age of 91 years young.
I cannot count the appearances by him I have enjoyed over the years. From his indie start through his mainstream teevee cameos he remains one of my favorite role players of all time spanning genre after genre, time periods, and depths of portrayal.
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- September 16, 2017
- National Guacamole Day
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Guacamole. Mashed avocado with seasonings, onion, tomatoes, and chili peppers chopped up and interspersed into the mixture then served with chips or as a condiment on various hispanic delicacies of which I have grown so fond over the years.
Today is National Guacamole Day in the United States. Though I don't really envision this a day declared by congressional decree; I will take a moment to declare my love for this flavorful addition to most anything wrapped in a tortilla ... like tacos, burritos and so forth.
A couple weeks back I was at salsarita's off Chris Drive and ordered two burritos and told them "don't forget the guac" even though it added dollars to the check. Some things are absolutely required. When guacamole is done well it is a taste sensation I add to just about everything.
It's a dip, it's a spread,
it's a salad, it's a condiment ...
Happy National Guacamole Day to all you Tex-Mex, Cali-Mex, and simply Mex food lovers out there.
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- September 15, 2017
- World Lymphoma Awareness Day
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I have lost a number of friends and acquaintances to lymphoma. In retrospect, it is surprising to note those numbers in my mind and to remember those once smiling faces who are no longer with us.
Lymphoma is a cancer which arises from the uncontrolled growth of white blood cells (lymphocytes). These abnormal cells deviate from their normal life cycle and spread instead of existing functionally and then dying in the manner of a normal cell.
It's frequency is said to be on the rise.
There are a lot of different types of lymphomas which ultimately come under two main types called "Hodgkin" and "non-Hodgkin".
The most common is Non-Hodgkin lymphoma which affects the T and B cells of the immune system.
Hodgkin lymphoma is characterised by cells known as Reed-Sternberg.
Hodgkin lymphomas is most common in male children and young adults and has various courses, morbidity, and prognoses.
It is sometimes relentless with prolonged treatment to no avail.
Today is World Lymphoma Awareness Day, held annually since 2004 by a group known as the Lymphoma Coalition and dedicated to increasing the awareness of lymphoma.
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- September 14, 2017
- Beware the Internet of Things
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IoT has become a phenomenon of late.
There is the good, the bad, and the ugly interspersed throughout this class of appliance which is networked and actively connects to the internet and systems thereon.
The news is replete with horror stories of late with warnings coming from security experts regarding the exploits available to the bottom feeder hacker types which are out to utilize the resources of others for either personal gain or to inflict pain. Such as attempting damage of power grids, reaking havoc on control systems, and other utility oriented targets as consequence and revenge attempts wrought upon the United States by our military industrial complex with it's the false flags and overt meddling by both elements of the government and shadow government out to wage war as a method of generating revenue.
The Internet of Things refers to the ever-growing network of physical objects that feature an IP address for internet connectivity, and the communication that occurs between these objects and other Internet-enabled devices and systems.
The bottom line here is when you place a networked device in your environment there are inherent privacy concerns coupled with an ability for that device to be utilized against you. Perhaps not as an actual threat, but in concert with other such IoT entities under the control of malware and botnets.
Be all of this as it may, were I to acquire a networked piece of equipment not meant for overt inter connectivity I would be quick to ensure it could not venture out or receive of it's own accord. Such a device could never be sold to me under informed consent.
As I don't trust embedded systems complete with wireless connectivity on automobiles I am equally against connected appliances in my home. There is room for manual systems in my life and none for hackable inclusions in my environment.
That's why I hang a sniffer on my router, pour over my logs in great painstaking detail, keep an extensive blacklist, and firewall intruders by entire subnet at the drop of a hat. Any ISP which supports these exploit loving dirtbag colleagues of mine can stay off my network as far as I am concerned.
As evidenced by the incompetence of Experian ... there is too much general access to what's out there because there are few consequences for anything exploited when it's internet related.
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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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