Personal Musings category archive
Stray Thought 0
It is notable that about the only bit of speculation in the speculative movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, that has come close to fruition is HAL, the malevolent computer.
Road Hazards 0
It is generally considered unwise to drive in a blizzard. I had to do it once and it was one of the scariest experiences of my life.
Mind you, it wasn’t a blizzard when I started out. We broke up our meeting early to beat the snow, but the snow won. Somehow, I made it home in my Chevette–a half-drive that took an hour and a half–where we remained snowed in for the better part of a week.
Sadly, we seem to be nearing peak unwisdom.
Afterthought:
I was living in Arlington, Va., at the time. That was the storm in which a jet crashed into the Potomac.
Dis Coarse Discourse 0
Somewhere along the line, our society has lost touch with the notion that polite is a good thing to be to each other.
Stray Thought, All the News that Fits Dept. 0
It is an irony that predictions sometimes come true not in the ways envisioned by their predictors.
George Orwell envisioned Big Brother as a remote dictatorial figure enforcing uniformity and compliance through lies (“through lies” is important here), and he predicted a surveillance state in service to Big Brother.
We have a Big Brother, but, rather than promoting unity and conformity in service to the government, it sows chaos and division to undermine government (and governance) through lies (again, the “through lies” is important).
It’s called Fox News (and its many clones and imitators).
We have a surveillance state designed to track our every movement, one to which many persons offer up their deepest secrets willingly, even eagerly; a surveillance state conceived not to enforce uniformity, but to sell advertising, yet which also serves to spread said Big Brother’s lies.
It’s called “social” media.
As Professor Shade was fond of saying, “History is irony.” The irony here is that both of the above resist attempts by government to spread truth.
For example. And another. And another.
Decorated 0
Ubuntu MATE with the Fluxbox window manager. The wallpaper is from my Christmas collection.
I have been having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit this year. Part of the problem is that it’s been a year of lousy news, but I think an even bigger issue has been that the climates they are a-changing. When the temperature’s in the 70’s, it just doesn’t seem very Christmasy for these parts.
For Pete’s sake, I drove to the recycling center with the top of my new(er) Mustang convertible down a couple of weeks ago.
In December.
(I must admit, though, that the last few days have felt a bit more like winter late fall.)
Stray Thought 0
There is no such thing as too many Midsomer Murders.
One Thing Is Not Like the Other Thing 0
With all due respect to Clyde Evely, “suspension of disbelief” and willfull abandonment of reality are not the same thing.
Aside:
The fabled panic created by Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds broadcast, to which Evely refers, was not as remembered in popular folklore (we covered this in my Sociology 101 class [mumble] years ago, for Pete’s sake). It affected a very small portion of the audience, mostly persons who listened to other radio shows and tuned into War of the Worlds after it was already about 15 minutes in and who lived in the area of New Jersey where the drama was set.
It’s not that persons disregarded the disclaimer at the beginning of the broadcast. It’s that they weren’t listening when the disclaimer was aired.
By the way, you can listen to that broadcast at the OTR Network Library.
Facebook Frolics 0
Have you ever had the sneaking suspicion that the Zuckerborg has morphed into a slavering, stumbling, bumbling monster beyond control?
If you have, I can’t imagine how you could have ever thought such a thought.
Then, again, maybe I can.
Natural Selection 0
Methinks Darwin was onto something.
The Climates They Are a-Changing 0
It looks like Cape May and Wildwood, where we used to vacation when I lived in the Philly area, are doomed have a less than propitious future.
In these parts, spring and fall have almost disappeared. From being a matter of months, they have become a matter of weeks.
When I was a young ‘un, growing up not far from where I write this, temperatures would gradually get cooler from September to November, usually with a bit of Indian summer around Thanksgiving. Then the cold weather would set in. Frosts were common from late October on.
No more.
We haven’t had a frost yet, and, last week, I drove the recycling to the recycling center with the top down on my car. And that warm day was not an exception.
This week, we are wrapping ourselves in down, but we still haven’t had a frost.
I fear we are well past the tipping point.
Game Day 0
I was in the ABC store yesterday and a couple of the customers and one of the staff were joshing with each other about Sunday’s football games.
I realized that I had no clue as to what they were joking about.
When I got to the checkout, the young lady at the register said, “This concludes the entertainment portion of your visit.”
I said, “I lost interest in football . . . because of the corruption. In the NFL, it’s the owners. In college, it’s the NCAA. It’s amazing how much more fun I have on Saturdays and Sundays now.”
I realized that I don’t miss football.
Not at all.
Stray Thought 0
As I watch episodes of the old Bob Newhart Show, the opening always takes me back to my road warrior days, when I was on the road one or two weeks a month.
When I worked for the railroad, I had many business trips to Chicago–it’s a railroad hub–and the scenes of Chicago in the intro to that show take me right back to those days.
They show Newhart walking in places where I have walked.
Election Day 0
We will be voting today, as we did not find the early voting options convenient this year.
Remember, voting is not a right. It is a duty.
Facebook Frolics 0
Methinks “metastatic” would have been a more appropriate choice.
Car Talk 0
Not content with spamming my phone, sometimes multiple times a day, the car warranty scammers have resorted to using the mail.
I have received two car warranty scam letters in the past two days.
Aside:
When put down in black and white (or, to be more accurate, in one letter in black and green and in the other black and light red), the hockey puck is even more obvious in print than it is in a phone call.
Plus, I checked with a local Ford dealer in regards to something other. My vehicle is under factory not-about-to-expire warranty for three more years, even though I purchased it used. (I would not get an extended warranty from anyone other than the manufacturer on a bet and probably not even then.)
I must say, though, that this must be a lucrative scam if the scammers are actually willing to pay for postage to perpetuate it . . . .
Vaccine Nation 0
We got our Pfizer COVID boosters today at our local drug store of choice.
We trust science. And scientists. And people who have whaddyacallem “qualifications.”
We don’t trust randos on Facebook.
Stray Thought 0
One of the things I like about my new(er) car is that it has no touch screen! The instrument panel is all computerized, natch, but the controls are all knobs and buttons and levers, as should be.
Automobile touch screens are perhaps the best example that “just because you can” is not in and of itself a sufficient reason to use a technology.