Here's another consideration: storage volume. Several years ago -- perhaps many years ago, by now -- I started planning for physically downsizing. Several hundred physical books, mostly fiction, have been replaced with e-books*. All of them fit nicely on a single DVD. They're now searchable. And at least the epub version of things can be displayed in my choice of fonts, my choice of character sizes and line spacing, my choice of paragraph formatting. I won't criticize anyone who prefers the tactile aspect of paper books, but that comes with lots of disadvantages.
Professionally, some times I wind up with three printed technical papers, or three volumes of the Colorado Revised Statutes, spread out across the desktop, each with a full page or two "displayed". Plus a pad of paper where I'm taking notes in my cramped little handwriting. Flipping back and forth in one of the papers with my left hand while I hold a pen in my right and never asking, "Where's the f*cking scrollbar for this document?" 4K screens have gotten cheap enough one of these days I may try an actual desktop-sized screen as an experiment.
I have a pair of computer glasses. I nagged the ophthalmologist into writing a prescription for that distance rather than the typical near or far numbers they write. I may have mentioned it before, but at age 70 my vision, both near and far, has improved in the last year to a degree the ophthalmologist can measure it. Karma is a b*tch, as they say, so that concerns me.
As an oldster who lived the tail end of the campus unrest in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I look forward to the current students' grandparents getting on TV to say "Back in the day we had no catering and to keep warm we had to burn down the ROTC building."
I'm a pessimist this morning, and believe that things will get worse in short order, when the FDA moves to impose purity, strength, and production quality control.
Another consideration is that the DA/county prosecutor has a fixed, finite budget. Trying the rich and powerful can get expensive in a hurry. No appeal or motion will go unmade, and will have to be responded to. The case stretches out over more and more time. How many mundane cases go unaddressed because of the resources that single one against the rich person?
I got a dog bite a couple of months ago that drew blood. I kept sort of a mental list of what modernity provided. Clean water in the shower, chlorinated so it's not got bugs of its own. Soap. Then a scrub with hydrogen peroxide. Then a scrub with 70% rubbing alcohol. OTC antibiotic cream to rub in for the next few nights. My tetanus booster up to date. The dog's rabies vaccination up to date. Hell, record keeping!
OTOH, like most large mammals, humans are remarkably tough. I remember a couple of episodes where my skin did moderately gross things to avoid infections.
What's over? I have read that the talent is pleased with Triple-H's initial handling of creative w/o Vince looking over his shoulder at all. Certainly Wrestlemania indicated that things were going to change -- when was the last time that many belts changed hands at one event? NXT is going to do a major event from the high-end UFC arena in Las Vegas. If last night's draft was any indication, Triple-H is finally going to make NXT a real third weekly show. And WWE Speed is a different sort of idea for what to do with short-duration streaming.
ThTh3: They seem to keep finding more and more black holes in our neighborhood. I wonder if this is a possibility for the Great Filter: a black hole wanders by close enough to disrupt things enough to force a restart from time to time.
The two big stories of political geography in the US over the last 30 years is the huge swing from blue-to-red in the Midwest (as a whole), and the red-to-blue swing in the West (as a whole). The NE urban corridor media finally seemed to notice the Midwest thing in 2016 (the "collapse" of the blue wall), but still seems to regard the Mountain West as hopelessly conservative despite the eight-state Mountain West having more Democratic US Senators than the 13-state Midwest.
I think they'll get there. AZ is doing it in the reverse order of CO. Statewide offices first, then district-level. Governor, AG, Secretary of State, and both US Senators are (D). At this point, the (R)s hold the statehouse and a majority of US House seats.
Colorado's tipping point was when the Gang of Four local billionaires decided to flip the state legislature, and worry about the rest later.
Yes. Modify North to be "a small number of the GOP legislators know". I haven't looked, but would be willing to make a small wager that they're all from suburban districts in Maricopa County. For them, the 1864 law is just the most recent straw: party opposition to the successful 2020 recreational marijuana initiative; the (shady) 2021 Republican audit of Maricopa County's vote that found no evidence of any sort of fraud (Biden gained 12 votes, IIRC); and the attempt this year to dismantle the very popular mail ballot system.
Today the Arizona House voted to repeal the 1864 law. A similar bill passed its first reading in the AZ Senate last week. If it gets to her, the Democratic Governor will certainly sign it.
At that point, the binding law in AZ will be the 15-week ban passed in 2022 while the Republicans held a trifecta.
I find that I’m much less extroverted now than I used to be...
Kept granddaughter #3 on Wednesday while her mom went to the dentist. 26 months, talks continuously, mostly in sentences, ridiculous vocabulary. She's extroverted enough for both of us.
I'm no longer allowed to put Frozen on the TV when I'm keeping the granddaughters. Granddaughter #1 has the entire score memorized, as well as the lyrics for the songs. Granddaughter #2 does voice-over advice to the characters, "No, it's a trap!" Granddaughter #3 does interpretive dance. Their mom says they need to learn another Disney movie. I'm leaning towards Tangled.
So, having swapped out the flannel for linen, and broken out the summer clothes, how are you dealing with the current weather? Yesterday I woke up to two inches of unexpected snow on the grass, and a high temp off 33 °F. Today was a bit warmer -- 35 °F -- and the snow melted. Forecast for tonight says another 1-4 inches.
First day of spring again on Monday :^) I'm still planning on getting my hair buzzed down to summer length next week.
Colorado Gov. Polis recently signed a state law that overrides local ordinances about limits on non-family sharing living quarters. The city of Fort Collins is really pissed off about it. Eight students in two-bedroom places generate a disproportionately high number of police calls.
Occasionally I have an urge for cashews. At my usual grocery, the produce section has Kroger's not-quite-organic brand cashews. (The not-quite-organic means there's a list of 101+ ingredients that are not used, eg, high-fructose corn syrup in the foods or artificial dyes in the cleaning products.) The bulk-foods section of the baking/spices aisle has generic cashews: cheap plastic shell packaging, black print on white label that says, "Cashews, roasted, salted." In another aisle they have snack nuts -- not the same aisle as cookies or chips -- with name-brand and store-brand cashews. Also store-brand "Cashew Halves and Pieces" which taste like cashews but are best eaten with a spoon.
When my wife and I got back from our wedding -- the wedding was half-way across the continent for the benefit of her dozens of small-town relatives -- her project at Bell Labs had reached the point of unit test on the actual big iron hardware. As a junior member of staff, the times available to her were in the middle of the night. After about six weeks, another woman about her same age asked how she could still be cheerful.
As much of the response that was ever reported to me was, "When I get home at 7:30 in the morning, the apartment is clean, the bed is made, the linen is fresh, the weekly laundry is washed, ironed, and put away, there's a meal waiting to be reheated for dinner, the pantry is stocked, and lunch for the next night is in the refrigerator."
The only part of her friend's response that was passed on to me was, "Mary, can I borrow your new husband for a week?"
When Mary told me all this, I was left with the impression that there were various women things that might have been discussed but not passed on to me, the mere male.
I was not loaned or rented out. Mary never criticized my shopping style.
Nothing at this level is all kayfabe. Iran made two statements. First, they didn't hide behind proxies, they launched from Iran. Second, they can afford to throw away 300 drones/cruise missiles to make a statement.
On “The Evolving Act of Physically Reading In a Digitial World”
Here's another consideration: storage volume. Several years ago -- perhaps many years ago, by now -- I started planning for physically downsizing. Several hundred physical books, mostly fiction, have been replaced with e-books*. All of them fit nicely on a single DVD. They're now searchable. And at least the epub version of things can be displayed in my choice of fonts, my choice of character sizes and line spacing, my choice of paragraph formatting. I won't criticize anyone who prefers the tactile aspect of paper books, but that comes with lots of disadvantages.
"
Professionally, some times I wind up with three printed technical papers, or three volumes of the Colorado Revised Statutes, spread out across the desktop, each with a full page or two "displayed". Plus a pad of paper where I'm taking notes in my cramped little handwriting. Flipping back and forth in one of the papers with my left hand while I hold a pen in my right and never asking, "Where's the f*cking scrollbar for this document?" 4K screens have gotten cheap enough one of these days I may try an actual desktop-sized screen as an experiment.
I have a pair of computer glasses. I nagged the ophthalmologist into writing a prescription for that distance rather than the typical near or far numbers they write. I may have mentioned it before, but at age 70 my vision, both near and far, has improved in the last year to a degree the ophthalmologist can measure it. Karma is a b*tch, as they say, so that concerns me.
On “Open Mic for the week of 4/29/2024”
As an oldster who lived the tail end of the campus unrest in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I look forward to the current students' grandparents getting on TV to say "Back in the day we had no catering and to keep warm we had to burn down the ROTC building."
"
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Dope, and Firearms.
"
I'm a pessimist this morning, and believe that things will get worse in short order, when the FDA moves to impose purity, strength, and production quality control.
"
The rest of the FY2024 budget passed under suspension with a bunch of Democratic votes in the House.
On “Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024”
Another consideration is that the DA/county prosecutor has a fixed, finite budget. Trying the rich and powerful can get expensive in a hurry. No appeal or motion will go unmade, and will have to be responded to. The case stretches out over more and more time. How many mundane cases go unaddressed because of the resources that single one against the rich person?
On “Dog Gone”
I got a dog bite a couple of months ago that drew blood. I kept sort of a mental list of what modernity provided. Clean water in the shower, chlorinated so it's not got bugs of its own. Soap. Then a scrub with hydrogen peroxide. Then a scrub with 70% rubbing alcohol. OTC antibiotic cream to rub in for the next few nights. My tetanus booster up to date. The dog's rabies vaccination up to date. Hell, record keeping!
OTOH, like most large mammals, humans are remarkably tough. I remember a couple of episodes where my skin did moderately gross things to avoid infections.
On “Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024”
Who says he did? It only takes four. Alito, Thomas, and two of Trump's three appointees are enough.
"
What's over? I have read that the talent is pleased with Triple-H's initial handling of creative w/o Vince looking over his shoulder at all. Certainly Wrestlemania indicated that things were going to change -- when was the last time that many belts changed hands at one event? NXT is going to do a major event from the high-end UFC arena in Las Vegas. If last night's draft was any indication, Triple-H is finally going to make NXT a real third weekly show. And WWE Speed is a different sort of idea for what to do with short-duration streaming.
"
Test for what? Whether it's an official action?
On “Thursday Thoughput: Fixing Spacecraft Edition”
ThTh3: They seem to keep finding more and more black holes in our neighborhood. I wonder if this is a possibility for the Great Filter: a black hole wanders by close enough to disrupt things enough to force a restart from time to time.
On “The Shifting Politics of Abortion”
The two big stories of political geography in the US over the last 30 years is the huge swing from blue-to-red in the Midwest (as a whole), and the red-to-blue swing in the West (as a whole). The NE urban corridor media finally seemed to notice the Midwest thing in 2016 (the "collapse" of the blue wall), but still seems to regard the Mountain West as hopelessly conservative despite the eight-state Mountain West having more Democratic US Senators than the 13-state Midwest.
"
I think they'll get there. AZ is doing it in the reverse order of CO. Statewide offices first, then district-level. Governor, AG, Secretary of State, and both US Senators are (D). At this point, the (R)s hold the statehouse and a majority of US House seats.
Colorado's tipping point was when the Gang of Four local billionaires decided to flip the state legislature, and worry about the rest later.
"
Yes. Modify North to be "a small number of the GOP legislators know". I haven't looked, but would be willing to make a small wager that they're all from suburban districts in Maricopa County. For them, the 1864 law is just the most recent straw: party opposition to the successful 2020 recreational marijuana initiative; the (shady) 2021 Republican audit of Maricopa County's vote that found no evidence of any sort of fraud (Biden gained 12 votes, IIRC); and the attempt this year to dismantle the very popular mail ballot system.
"
Today the Arizona House voted to repeal the 1864 law. A similar bill passed its first reading in the AZ Senate last week. If it gets to her, the Democratic Governor will certainly sign it.
At that point, the binding law in AZ will be the 15-week ban passed in 2022 while the Republicans held a trifecta.
On “Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024”
It's difficult to tell the people with guns and the willingness to use them that they're not in charge.
On “Weekend Plans Post: The Aftermath of Catching Up”
I find that I’m much less extroverted now than I used to be...
Kept granddaughter #3 on Wednesday while her mom went to the dentist. 26 months, talks continuously, mostly in sentences, ridiculous vocabulary. She's extroverted enough for both of us.
I'm no longer allowed to put Frozen on the TV when I'm keeping the granddaughters. Granddaughter #1 has the entire score memorized, as well as the lyrics for the songs. Granddaughter #2 does voice-over advice to the characters, "No, it's a trap!" Granddaughter #3 does interpretive dance. Their mom says they need to learn another Disney movie. I'm leaning towards Tangled.
"
So, having swapped out the flannel for linen, and broken out the summer clothes, how are you dealing with the current weather? Yesterday I woke up to two inches of unexpected snow on the grass, and a high temp off 33 °F. Today was a bit warmer -- 35 °F -- and the snow melted. Forecast for tonight says another 1-4 inches.
First day of spring again on Monday :^) I'm still planning on getting my hair buzzed down to summer length next week.
On “The Statistical Side of Immigration”
Colorado Gov. Polis recently signed a state law that overrides local ordinances about limits on non-family sharing living quarters. The city of Fort Collins is really pissed off about it. Eight students in two-bedroom places generate a disproportionately high number of police calls.
On “Dirty Feet”
When I was a young lad, I could get my feet filthy without ever removing my tennis shoes and socks.
On “Fear and Loathing in Aisle Eight”
Occasionally I have an urge for cashews. At my usual grocery, the produce section has Kroger's not-quite-organic brand cashews. (The not-quite-organic means there's a list of 101+ ingredients that are not used, eg, high-fructose corn syrup in the foods or artificial dyes in the cleaning products.) The bulk-foods section of the baking/spices aisle has generic cashews: cheap plastic shell packaging, black print on white label that says, "Cashews, roasted, salted." In another aisle they have snack nuts -- not the same aisle as cookies or chips -- with name-brand and store-brand cashews. Also store-brand "Cashew Halves and Pieces" which taste like cashews but are best eaten with a spoon.
"
When my wife and I got back from our wedding -- the wedding was half-way across the continent for the benefit of her dozens of small-town relatives -- her project at Bell Labs had reached the point of unit test on the actual big iron hardware. As a junior member of staff, the times available to her were in the middle of the night. After about six weeks, another woman about her same age asked how she could still be cheerful.
As much of the response that was ever reported to me was, "When I get home at 7:30 in the morning, the apartment is clean, the bed is made, the linen is fresh, the weekly laundry is washed, ironed, and put away, there's a meal waiting to be reheated for dinner, the pantry is stocked, and lunch for the next night is in the refrigerator."
The only part of her friend's response that was passed on to me was, "Mary, can I borrow your new husband for a week?"
When Mary told me all this, I was left with the impression that there were various women things that might have been discussed but not passed on to me, the mere male.
I was not loaned or rented out. Mary never criticized my shopping style.
On “Open Mic for the week of 4/8/2024”
Nothing at this level is all kayfabe. Iran made two statements. First, they didn't hide behind proxies, they launched from Iran. Second, they can afford to throw away 300 drones/cruise missiles to make a statement.
"
Anecdata... Comcast has sold Spanish-language packages all over the country for more than 20 years. They still use Latino as the designation.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.