Welcome
- 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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- August 30, 2017
- The Myth of Being Unlucky in Love
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One of those social adages I have encountered over the years has been "unlucky at love" whereby the person is single and has never had any serious coupling prospects or something in a similar vein.
Anyway one of those "kiss of death" moments in a blind date introduction for me personally has been the revelation that someone is "unlucky at love" whereby my shields go to maximum and the entire outing becomes yet another lesson in futility.
Why then have I, who pretty much is undatable with my girth and my baldness, been able to attract those females for various excursions when all of these perfectly lovely people who are "unlucky in love" have had to settle for let us say ... less than optimal company.
It's your standards. I set high goals and those women I entertain are in search of that which I can provide: a technical edge. They are not so much concerned with me as a life partner or "Mr Right" as it were as they are with an immediate need I can provide thereby rendering me "Mr Right Now".
I'm typically very satisfied with these relationships because it saves me from having to show anyone the door and let's face it ... "the game" is not something a person my age should have to pursue anyway.
So I'll take what I get from time to time and enjoy those companies which enjoy mine — regardless of the underlying motivation. Should I be sad that there is always some ulterior motive ? I think not. The benefits are highly satisfactory and that's all I really care about.
Someday I may be smitten once again having been there only once in my life. I don't see it happening but would not begrudge it's arrival a single iota.
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- August 29, 2017
- MJ
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I remember where I was and what I was doing when Michael Jackson died. I was working for an evil persian who lured me away with promises he never intended to keep ... my actual duty at the moment was programming a web based bare metal backup machine manufacturing and service database for a company called Unitrends and I was deep into the guts of a coldfusion application growing exponentially.
The news came over the radio and one of the other persians broke it to me ... first that he was very ill and they could not revive him. Then that he had passed and that more details would follow.
Never in my entire existence did I think that I would outlive Michael Jackson with his hyperbaric oxygen chamber and boundless resources but ... I'm still here and he lays somewhere in southern california in a gold plated casket with velvet lining.
I witnessed his evolution from black child through the various plastic surgical stages which made him first "pretty" then a white appearing man. I was not aware of those things which went along with all of that like the tatooed make up and darkening of the scalp to lessen his bald spot's appearance.
Despite the controversy which was his life and after hour pursuits he was after all a father with three young children who lost him entirely too soon. I remember the funeral and the despair exhibited by his lovely little daughter and wishing there were something that could be done for her to bring him back.
Alas, this was not to be and she has had to simply get past it as best she can with such matters being the of the most difficult a person may endure.
So today, Michael Jackson would have been 58, a scant four years younger than me. So rest in peace Michael. I hope you look over your children and family and that you have finally found some peace at long last.
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- August 28, 2017
- Charlottesville
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When the white and black combatants at the Charlottesville rally were seen exiting the same buses prior to the fray — with alleged 25 dollar an hour payments to those participants by George Soros ...
it is rather difficult to fathom why this polarization directed at two obviously misrepresented groups exists in an objective society.
Then we have that massive vitriol spewed by the democrats, progressives, and that joke known as Antifa who utterly throw a gasket when the President speaks of violence on "both" sides because that isn't what they want to hear — even though it is the truth.
This country has an element which founders when their subterfuge fails. When they cannot misrepresent the conservative element without the lies and manipulations coming to light the reaction is sheer insanity.
There are threads of truth available to those of us who pursue them. Just steer clear of CNN, the NY Times, the LA Times, and all of those others with false preconceived notions which bear witness to that fake news they present as fact.
Those of us who pursue the truth are not being fooled by the yellow journalism and fake news being promoted as factual when the facts simply are not there.
Too many are either in collusion with this setup or simply decline to acknowledge the interference by outside fundage. At least call yourself what you are: conspirator or stupid or both.
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- August 27, 2017
- Avoiding the Dim Bulb
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I have always prided myself on trying to cultivate both knowledge and wisdom. I have met others with one but not the other. I have also met those with neither.
While I hesitate to comment on my intellect I can at least say that I've tried to learn as I went along and not allow my life to become some never ending stream of repeated mistakes ... unlike some I used to tolerate in my midst.
Appreciation of the fact that it takes all kinds of individuals to make a world hasn't always sufficed in my existence. There have been times when I wanted to kill people I believed to be stupid. Acquaintances, family members — it didn't make any difference.
Tolerance was something I had to grow into. That sum total of who we are is based on a bunch of highs and lows existing in the same universe. And then there is Iceland.
Iceland claims to be eliminating a genetic defect from their population by aborting pregnancies where the conceived suffers from things like trisomy-21 ... the common origin of Down Syndrome.
I am left with a quandry involving the right to life of an individual compared to the right of a society to eliminate individuals they consider to be "defective". Having met a number of persons with Down Syndrome I have found many of them to be preferable as company and in fact some of them exibit insights to living that I in all my "superiority" have overlooked.
Most of all it is their appreciation for life which causes me the greatest pause. After all, when a person is filled with wonder for the world and can conduct their activities of daily living appropriately who am I to say their life is not worth living?
Eugenics not withstanding, I personally continue to cohabitate, engage when the occasion arises, and refrain from judging anyone for their intellect or lack thereof.
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- August 26, 2017
- Women's Equality Day
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Equality. It's been one of those items of contention for various groups over the years.
Even now, the rehetoric continues on multiple planes of existence and the alleged downtrodden are sometimes whining and moaning and groaning to the actual underdogs in society.
People touting the "privilege" of another group is often suberfuge for the greedy seizure of more and more while those objects of that complaining receive less and less.
Entitlements it seems cross all sorts of boundaries these day. Those qualms of yesteryear were a simpler time and place than that reality we now know.
August 26 marks Women's Equality Day in the United States. It commemorates the adoption of the 19th Ammendment to the US Constitution of August 18, 1920 which guarantees the right to vote regardless of the sex of the voter.
It was first celebrated with significant fanfare in 1973 and is proclaimed annually by POTUS since.
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- August 25, 2017
- National Waffle Day 2017
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The US patent on a waffle iron fell on August 24. This inspired National Waffle Day in the United States. I really enjoy these a small crispy cakes made of batter which has been baked in a waffle iron.
I like them hot with butter and syrup — sometimes honey or fruit compote and whipped cream..
My love of the Belgian Waffle was cultivated in Southern California in the early 1980s at a little place in Laguna Hills where I went every so often for breakfast.
All in all the waffle is one of those things which recurs through my life over the years because I actively pursue them.
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