Unhappy musing

Where to start.  I have so many thoughts.  I can't even call it musing.  It's too intense for that.  Too unhappy.

It was a given that he would be "acquitted".  The GOP is in his pocket.  We knew that but we're not sure why that is.  He was not exonerated the same way OJ was not exonerated,  Our only hope, this country's only hope, is that the free press keeps up the pressure.  Almost everything we've learned came from skilled investigative journalists, and I hope they keep digging.  There is more to be learned.  We know that.

The GOP likes to pin the last several months, or years, on the Democrats.  This scandal, this "hoax", all the scandals, all their fault.  How dare they put the country through this.  But this is all on the GOP.  They could have stopped it.  It was a given that a Republican was going to be president.  I repeat.  IT WAS A GIVEN THAT A REPUBLIAN WAS GOING TO BE PRESIDENT.  They had it in the bag.  The cycle of political life.  They could have promoted a more palatable candidate (except Ted Cruz), and they still would have won.  And we would not be where we are now.  They could have their guns and judges and religious extremism and money and power, and we'd be debating policy instead of the president's fitness or corruption.  For whatever reason, the GOP completely trashed (and still do) their "values" in submission to someone that they knew was a snake.

I hate being ripped off.  I and all Americans, even Trumpers, are being ripped off every fucking day he's in office.  Our tax money is padding his bank account as well as funding his new network of global connections directly attached to the White House.  I firmly believe that his "Executive Time" is spent doing Trump Org business.  He's working his business at his properties, and he's lining up his ventures for after the White House.  There's actually a report of his being in talks for a TV network or show or something.  His entire presidency is based on promoting the Trump brand.  And we have a government that is run like the Real Housewives of Bum Fuck.  A really shitty reality show.

We don't even know what conservative values are anymore.  Certainly not what we thought they were.  I actually agree with some conservative ideas, or at least what I thought they were.  Smaller government, states' rights, fiscal responsibility, respect for the Constitution.  None of those are in play anymore.

Conservative moral values?  We now know there is no such thing.  It's OK to cheat on all your wives.  It's OK to assault sexually.  It's OK to employ undocumented workers until you get caught.  It's OK to use vulgar language in public unless you're not a Republican.  It's OK to shoot up a school or church because you have the right to own a military grade weapon of mass destruction.  It's OK to separate children from their parents.  It's OK that a woman is impregnated by a rapist.  It's OK that a religion (run by men) can force a young girl into marriage before she's old enough to understand what that means.  It's OK to subjugate and demean women and minorities.  It's OK that 1/3 of the population decides what's best for the other 2/3s.  It's OK that the wealthiest few get all the breaks and perks while the majority gets the scraps.  It's OK that the fucking President of the United States of America attacks fellow Americans in mean tweets and goddamn fucking public appearances.

We are no longer the shining beacon of democracy in the world.  We're no longer the leader of the free world.  Despite what Trumplethinskin says, we are not respected by the world, and they are laughing at us.  It's not unimaginable that the world will someday soon see America as a symbol of corruption and dictatorship if we continue on this path.

I'm in the twilight of my years.  I'm thinking that's probably OK.  I don't think I want to see what happens if he wins another term.  Or lives long enough to usurp the Constitution again by making himself and his family a monarchy.  They say only the good die young.  The opposite of that is that the bad live too long.

tnt

Year End Random Musings

Happy New Year 2019 almost.

First, let me say.  I got sucked into the week-long Doctor Who Marathon, so I can't say I've accomplished much this past week or so.  My DVR allowed me to pause long enough to get some things done, but mostly I was hooked for the duration.

But I had random musings, and so in no particular order....

- 23 and Me / Ancestry.com -
Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I do not trust this or any organization with my DNA.  I read and watch too much Sci-Fi to not imagine how such a database could be used against us.  Not only that, but if I'm not mistaken, 23 and Me is owned/operated by Ancestry.com which is owned/operated by the Mormon Church.  Organized religion in possession of this data is a big problem.  I know all I need to know about my genetic history from oral and researched history.

What is that history that I know?  My maternal grandmother was 1/2 Native American.  I don't know her exact history or tribe as her records were lost in a house fire.  I was told she was born in Canada.  My maternal grandfather (her husband) was off-the-boat Norwegian.  On the paternal side, Caucasian European, probably German and Dutch.  I don't need a dubious DNA testing (for profit) outfit to tell me what I'm made of.

- Trump -
My favorite card game is Euchre.  The main theme of the game is the concept of trump - the dominant suit.  Trump has become a foul word, and hard to say in even the most benign of instances.  Right wingers call us libtards because we are, in their view, unpatriotic because we loathe Trump.  They don't understand that we don't loathe him because he's Republican or conservative or not Clinton.  It's because of who and what he is.  Most of us would be just fine with a Republican president.  It was their turn to fuck things up, I guess.  The Republicans had a herd of candidates, some perfectly acceptable, but this is what they chose.  We could be disagreeing about policy instead of the corruption and degradation of the highest office in the land.  We might be trusting foreign policy to someone who was not beholden to a foreign power.  We might have a leader who really cared more about the people than himself.  We might not be living in a fucking reality TV show.

- The Media -
Can't talk about Trump without talking about the media.  I get most of my national and political news from Twitter.  Yeah yeah, I know.  I try to be discriminating about where I get that news.  I only follow accounts I believe to be unbiased or mostly so.  If an account is just spewing opinion rather than facts, I don't usually bother following.  If an account is retweeting a lot of stuff from less reputable accounts, I don't bother with them.  I wait to see if a "breaking" report is confirmed by multiple outlets before I consider its validity.  I try to use my head.

I'm not the only one who has tired of how the media covers the Liar-In-Chief.  Every stupid "presidential" tweet is put into the echo chamber.  The outlets condense it to an eye catching headline that doesn't emphasize the bullshit.  Instead of starting with the truth, they repeat his lies,  Guess what is then out there.  The lies, not the truth.  The saddest, and most evil, result is that is exactly what Trump wants them to do.  Spread his bullshit.  He rails against the "fake news", but he revels in it.  Everybody is talking about him 24/7.  That's what he wants.  That's why he ran for president.

I could go on and on but let's move on to something else.

- Muscle Cramps -
How's that for completely random?  I've been plagued by cramps most of my life.  I wake up in the middle of the night with leg cramps.  I get muscle spasms in other parts of my body during the day.  I've heard dehydration might be responsible.  I do try to drink enough water.  Potassium deficiency might be another cause.  Bananas didn't help.  I had read many years ago that quinine helped.  At the time, I didn't know where to get it.  I thought I read somewhere that it was restricted or banned or something,  I recently discovered tonic water with quinine, available at any grocery store.  It has pretty high potassium, and quinine is one of the sources.  I do believe it helps.  If I'm having a crampy day, it seems to alleviate the spasms.  On another note, screwdriver (vodka and OJ) was my favorite mixed drink.  I now prefer vodka and tonic.  Two birds, one stone.

- Wee Dark Hours -
Don't know if I ever explained the origin of the title of this blog.  I'm usually up stupid early.  Way before the sun.  The hours between midnight and sunrise are sometimes referred to as the wee small hours.  They're also dark.  I used to write most of my musings in the wee dark hours.  Sooo….

However, tonight, after a few vodka tonics, I felt like writing.

Happy New Year

P.S.  I don't usually make resolutions.  Why bother.  But I am going to try to deTrump my life.  Managed it for a short period earlier this year, and it was good.  That means less political news, less of the piece of shit on the White House toilet.  Twitter once a day, and my favorite late night comedy shows should be enough to keep up on the state of the union.  We'll see how it goes.  Things might get even more interesting this year, and blow up that resolution.

tnt

Ok, never mind....

...I will write about this crap.

Give him a chance, they said.  Hey, he's not giving us much to work with here.  So far, his cabinet is looking very anti-diverse, anti-tolerant, and anti-any color other than white.  Some ultra conservative religious right guys, an anti-semantic nationalist.  And by the way, who the hell does that nationalist Bannon guy remind me of?  Driving me crazy.  It's an actor or character of some scruffy sort that I can't put my finger on.

I said in the last post that we would be less shell-shocked if we had seen the sedate reasonable guy in the victory speech all through the campaign.  Then I watched the 60 Minutes interview.  It's probably the last time I'll watch him speak publicly again because I'll never respect or believe what he says.  I know I'll see more of that smug smirk of a pig face more than I want, just because the nasty that is Trump isn't going away.  He'll make sure of that.  Anyways.  In that interview, he was asked point blank if he had any regrets.  The interviewer gave him the opportunity to appeal to us, to give us a reason to respect him and give him a chance, and he had no remorse.  He could have apologized to everyone he hurt and insulted and threatened, for causing the extreme division, and that could have been a step toward healing, but no.  He flat out said no...no regrets for anything, and he wouldn't do it differently.  I'm not sure what he means by making the country great again, but as long as we are so divided and feeling so betrayed by our own countrymen, and this deplorable man, this country will not be great.  It's going to be a long unhappy 4 years.  Or longer.

The other thing that caught my ear in that interview was his odd interpretation of the Constitution.  When asked if he'd repeal Roe v. Wade (abortion rights), he said he was pro-life and would support federal repeal, and allow states to decide.  If a woman wanted an abortion, she might have to go to another state. When asked about marriage equality, he said "It's in the Constitution, it's done".  Wait.  Isn't Roe v. Wade in the Constitution?  So what...he's going to cherry-pick the Constitution, the same way christians cherry-pick the bible to suit their bigotries?

He reportedly wants to go on a victory tour of the states that won him the election.  What a Trumpian thing to do!  It's like he realized that from now on, his contact with the public will mostly be via camera where he can't hear and feel the adulation of his Trumpers.  He needs those rallies to pump his enormous ego.  Twitter won't be enough for him since there are so many anti-Trump tweeters.  He brags about his millions of followers thinking that means they all love him.  Hey, I'm following him, but not because I love him.  Pretty sure I'm not the only one of that mindset.  That's how ignorant that dipstick is.  And besides, doesn't he have an awful lot to do between now and inauguration?  He doesn't have time for a frivolous tour.

Now there's this feud with the cast of the musical Hamilton.  If you haven't heard, Mike Pence VP-elect, attended a performance, and was booed by the audience when he was recognized.  After the final bows, the cast addressed him personally, appealing for tolerance and respect for the diversity of America, which caused him to slink out of the theater.  Trump took to Twitter to blast the cast for its action.  Once again showing us a very frightening image of a world leader with a paper-thin skin, and no respect for the Constitutional right to freedom of speech.  And later, Pense said he wasn't offended by the Hamilton thing.

And Mrs. Trump.  Awww, bless her heart.  She's taking on internet bullying as her First Lady Cause when she's married to a world class bully, and maybe even bullied herself.  In that interview, they tried to give us the impression she has some say in that marriage, but that would be very hard to believe.  Their dynamic looked so fake to me.  Unless she has something on him.

There's a word I learned about during this campaign that I hadn't paid much attention to before now.  Evangelical.  I had to look it up.  Basically, it means the extreme right christians, the ones who insist the bible be followed literally, and laws of the land follow the law of the bible.  The hell-fire and brimstone christians.  It's become a foul word to me.  These are people who could influence this administration to threaten my freedoms.  This word is especially abhorrent because these are the most hypocritical christians.  They claim they voted Republican and therefore Trump for family values.  To them, family values means anti-gay, anti-abortion, and anti-non-christian.  But bigotry, sexism, sexual assault, pedophilia, liars, and cheats are okay.

Then there's the report that Trump wants to split his time between the White House and his New York penthouse.  Well, isn't that special.  We, the tax-paying people will pay for extra Secret Service detail so King Midas can sleep in his golden tower.

Each day, there are more new appointments to his cabinet.  There's much speculation based on who is admitted to the golden tower, and then a confirmed appointment that we didn't expect.  We're losing our SC governor to be U.N. ambassador.  I haven't been here long enough, or paid enough attention, so I don't know much about her, but she seemed like a level-headed woman who ran the state without a heavy hand.  We might miss her.  Her deputy governor will take over, and his titles/previous positions sound like he will not be a progressive head of state.

We're still waiting to hear all the cabinet appointments, but from what we've seen it looks like cronyism all around.  He had said during his campaign that he "would get the brightest and smartest, the best people" to help him.  Apparently, the brightest, smartest, best people are the ones that like him.  Or are desperate to kiss his ring to get their foot in the door to the golden tower.

Now there's the New York Times interview.  I read the transcript, and it was typical Trump.  Rambling, immature and limited language and grammar.  I learned an alarming new thing.  Apparently, the President has more power than I thought, and even less accountability.  Meaning he can rewrite rules as it suits him, and use the office to further his business goals.  With his authoritarian personality, having been a powerful boss all his adult life, he could turn himself into a fucking king!   How can anyone doubt this is not about America, this is about making Trump great?  How can anyone trust him to run this country with its people's best interests in mind?  Goddamnit.

King Midas, this country will never be united under you.

tnt

Random Musing

About climate change.  Lot of talk about that these days.  Some, including His Trumpness, say it's a hoax.  Science says it's the real deal.  I will always side with science.  If you have any science education at all, you can't deny that this planet has gone through many climate changes.  Change is just the nature of the universe.  We can't stop it, but we can plan for and adapt to it, and we have the means to do that.  That's what climate change advocates are trying to make the world understand.  Coastal populations need to prepare for rising sea levels due to warming and polar ice melt.  It's a sad fact that many species will be lost to a drastic change, but that too has happened many times.  Evolution will fill in the gaps, but there will be further loss as nature adapts to the changes.

By the way, here is my view of the world and all.  Humans may consider themselves the dominant life form on this planet, but we are not the most important.  The loss of just a few key species at the lower end of the food chain will impact us tremendously.  Warming seas will deplete krill and plankton which would affect fish and other oceanic species.  On land, coastal flooding would kill off terrestrial plants and animals.  The warmer and higher sea levels will affect the weather.  All these changes will affect our food supply and lifestyles.  We have to plan for this, and come up with solutions.  We can't just sit here and go oh pooh pooh.  (nerd note: that's a Buffy reference)

About Ancient Aliens.  Yeah, I'm going there again.  Not about aliens, but about ancient civilizations.  I've said before that I'm not necessarily buying the Ancient Alien Theory (AAT), but that something very important was going on in pre-history.  I began to think about what would survive if our current civilizations collapsed.  We're in the digital age now.  Would any of this survive the test of time?  Nope.  Paper certainly wouldn't, unless it could be preserved as some ancient scrolls were in perfectly arid conditions.  Iron and steel?  It would be iffy, I think.  Eventually most metals succumb to corrosion and erosion.  What would stand the test of time?  The same thing that survived ancient times...stone and gold.  What if there were civilizations in our distant past that arose to the technological level we are at now, and then collapsed (oooh, climate change?), and then we had to claw our way back to where we are now.   All our previous knowledge was lost to time, and had to be relearned.  All we had was whatever survived the collapse, and maybe that was whatever had been written in stone.  I think we need to preserve our knowledge in true hard copy....stone and gold.

About funerals.  Hey, I said this was going to be random stuff.  Humans desperate need to enter an imagined afterlife has created the most environmentally irresponsible funeral practices.  We destroy acres of valuable habitat or potential farm land to accommodate non-biodegradable containers to preserve (often chemically) a carcass that should be feeding the earth as nature intended.  Not to the mention the waste of water, oil, and gas that large expanses of cemetery turf grass creates.  Cremation is the best choice, in my opinion, and many ancient civilizations agreed.  I read a story once (Sci-Fi) that had such an elegant and responsible solution.  A body was buried upright in a vertical hole, and a tree was planted over it to honor the dead, and give back to the environment.  How beautiful and reverent of the nature of life and death.  I've read that there are organizations that can make something similar to this happen.  I'd much rather my remains feed a tree than serve no purpose at all.  Even cremation ashes give more back to the earth than a casket burial.  But religion is responsible for this gross irresponsibility and waste, and until we let go of that, we will continue to rape the earth for our superstitious beliefs.

tnt

Long time no write...again.

I've actually written several times (often drunk blogging), and in the light of sober day, didn't upload.

Not drunk blogging now, but I've got things to say.  I don't want to bother my social media friends with my opinion in their feeds.  Here, I can say it all at once and they can read it or not.  So here I go.

The election is getting close, and it's very scary.  For everybody.  Republicans can't in good conscience support their party's candidate, but they're stuck with him.  Democrats are only half-heartedly supporting theirs.  America will be screwed either way. 

There are a couple more candidates that are basically just side shows.  If only Bernie Sanders could have come back as an independent.  I believe he was the only popular choice that was a truly honest man who cared about this country.  Only he could take on the 2 options we are now stuck with, and I think he could set a precedent for an Independent President.  Imagine that for a minute.  ANYONE could become President, not just those with the money and power.  Our founding fathers wanted it that way, but big money made sure that can't happen.

I'll start with Hillary Clinton.  The lesser of the 2 evils.  I'm not sure why so many voters despise her.  Because she's a woman?  A career politician?  Not Bernie Sanders?  Married to an ex-President who was impeached because he lied about an extra-marital affair?  Something millions of people do every day.  This country is in desperate need of an experienced leader.  She already knows the inner workings of the government.  She understands foreign policy.  She understands foreign and domestic economics.  I think she is fully capable of running point for the security of this nation, and the well-being of its citizens.  We can't afford a President who has to learn it all on the fly, and isn't smart enough to grasp it.

I get that many Americans don't trust her.  Her opponents have spent a lot of their considerable campaign funds making sure of that.  Do they have valid points?  I don't know, but she has been exonerated of all of the charges, and apologized for any blunders.  It's interesting that no one is calling for Trump to release his emails.  What a read that would be!

I'm so tired of Republicans and the wealthy NRA going on about how Clinton will take away their guns.  Nobody is going to take away your fucking guns!  If you have the legal right to own and carry one, you can.  All we want is more oversight into who can.  The recently shot down proposed controls were perfectly reasonable and not infringing on anyone's right to a gun.  Granted, criminals will still get illegal guns, but common sense measures will make it harder for bad guys to get one legally.  That's all we ask.  How many more people, especially children, have to die for you to get that?  Republicans are so protective of the 2nd Amendment, but seem to be willing to ignore or even destroy the 1st.  The very one this country was founded on.  I want a President who respects and upholds the entire Constitution, not just the part they care about.

And now Donald Trump.  Oh boy.  I won't rehash all the things he has said and done.  Murica.  This derogatory term has been coined to refer to the kind of people who admire someone like Trump.  Muricans are the ones that will take hits in the nuts for internet fame.  The ones that will physically attack protesters at a rally.  The ones who are bigots.  The ones who think a man who demeans non-whites, women, and anyone who disagrees with him is the best thing for this country.  Murica is why Trump made it this far.  Not America.

It's not like R-voters didn't have viable options.  They had a goddamn herd of them!  I'm really glad Ted Cruz isn't what they ended up with, but I wouldn't have had an objection to most of them.  Hell, what was wrong with the last one standing...John Kasich?  Seemed like an honest, intelligent, dignified and sane guy.  He could have pulled the party out of the gutter, and probably even win.   But, nooo, Murica has spoken.

I can't think of a single reason Trump should be President.  He has the temperament, emotional maturity, and vocabulary of a 12 year old.  He and his Trumpers say it's because he's a businessman and not a politician.  It's very clear he's not a politician.  But you know what, the President needs to be a politician to deal with the rest of the world.  Businessman, yes, but a good one?  Not so much.  Sure he has lots of money and a vast business empire, but his business failings are equal to or more than his successes, and very likely kind of shady.  The recent reports that he may not be paying taxes due to a massive loss 18 years ago (also very possible that loss was shady) is a slap in the face of every struggling hard working American.  If he has nothing to hide, why won't he release his tax returns?  Any economic plan he has will benefit him and his rich cronies, not America.  You say you don't trust Clinton?  How the hell can you trust Trump?

One of his other platforms is immigration reform.  This from a man who's on his 3rd trophy wife, 2 of whom where immigrants, and there's reason to doubt the current one was a legal immigrant.  Oh yeah, and she has a thick foreign accent that sounds rather Russian.  I know she's not Russian, just saying.  Trump does seem to be enamored with Russia.  The First Lady has a role to play, and we want to respect and admire her.  I'm having a hard time imagining just what role this one would serve, and how we could respect presidential arm candy.

Trump's battle cry is "Make America great again", but what he really wants is to make Trump great again.  He seems to think he can just go in and throw his weight around to meet his campaign promises.  Maybe he thinks he'll be king.  He doesn't have a clue.

There's a theory, and I believe it, that Trump never really wanted to be President.  He just wanted to run, prove he could win, and then ride out the rest of his life and business dealings on that "success".  A publicity stunt and ego boost.  I and I think most intelligent and responsible Americans are terrified he'll win, and be the President mostly likely to be impeached.  Which means we'd end up with Pence who would shred the Constitution if given a chance, not to mention the turmoil an impeachment would create.  Make American great again?  No, set it back 200 years.  Either way,  Trump or Pence, we lose.

I said in the beginning of this post that we will be screwed no matter what happens in November.  Even though I hope (I'd pray if I prayed) Trump doesn't win, and I believe Clinton is the only sane choice, we'll still be fucked if she wins.  Why?  Because Republicans will fight her tooth and nail for the next 4 years, and we the people will bear the pain of those Republican tantrums.  Republicans, you let this despicable man hijack your party and election.  Accept your fumble, and make our government work for the people for a change.

tnt

Season's Greetings

Wow.  Really long time no write.  Can't say why.  Haven't had much of import to say I guess.  But the internet has pushed some buttons so here I am.

Politics.  Hate em.  I just don't have the words for how disgusted I am with what's going on in this election season.  Or maybe I have too many words.

Religion.  Yeah, too many words here, too.  I'll just leave this paragraph at this for now.  That image of that county clerk with her beatific smile and arms raised like the Slow Loris and a fucking presidential candidate holding up her arm while an iconic rock song plays like she just ran up a mountain of steps will forever haunt me.

The K Klan.  No, not that one.  The Kardashian one.  Still hate em.  If there's a god, why doesn't it do something about that?  And isn't anyone talking about the fact that they named the latest future scourge on the world Saint?  Is no one offended by this?  Catholics, you out there?

I have a guilty pleasure.  Okay, lots of them, but I'll just talk about one for now.  "Ancient Aliens Theory" and religion from the perspective of archaeology and historic investigation.  I know that's two things, but I put them together because it's basically about the same thing.  I'm fascinated by the documentaries on these things.  They raise questions, and make me think about what the answers could be.  The reason these two things go together is that they both debunk religion so beautifully.

I'll start with Ancient Aliens Theory.  I'm not saying I agree with it, but I'm not disagreeing either.  Some of it is a stretch, some is just plain silly, but a lot of it...well, I haven't heard a better explanation.  Something very important in human history was going on long before the biblical stories were conceived.  Even before the ancient stories that were plagiarized by the bible.  If not actual extra-terrestrials, then maybe there were highly advanced civilizations that failed for whatever reason.  It's a lot easier for me to accept physical ETs as gods than mystical gods.  An idea that came to my mind is that humans are the ETs.  We came here, did amazing things, and then some apocalypse caused a collapse leaving just enough alive to begin again from scratch.  We scattered and forgot what happened, or didn't write it down, or did write it but not accurately or legibally, and now today, we're trying to piece that early history back together.

One theory suggested in the AAT series was the existence of a "god gene".  According to the documentary, someone studied this, and did find a gene that seems to be common to devout people.  The scholars wondered what evolutionary advantage such a gene would have, and thought it might have made it easier for people to live and work together.  They invented an idea they could rally around, and the people had to be susceptible to accepting it.  My thought is that it wasn't an advantage, it was just exploited.  Human nature being what it is, certain dominant personalities used it to their advantage to become leaders, and then control the community for their personal gain.  As the population was controlled, and the gene pool somewhat closed, the god gene was perpetuated.  Now there's a huge number of people that refuse to believe what science has learned, and cling to outdated and implausible doctrines that don't apply to modern times.  The god gene is no longer necessary as we've become numerous and educated enough that we can work together without a controlling mythology, but the powers that be are still using it to this day, and the masses are letting them.   The AAT also suggests this gene was planted in the human genome by ETs, but I think it more likely that it was a mutation that arose naturally as a consequence of a restricted gene pool.  That's if there really is a god gene.  I obviously don't have it, and I'm thankful for that.

The series that investigate religion, and particularly the bible, are also fascinating to me because for the most part, they validate what I think.  God is a man-made concept, not the other way around.  Religions started as stories that fancifully explained the natural world.  The bible ripped off stories that were told thousands of years earlier, and powerful men convinced (or forced) people that this was divine law and truth, and said bow down.  It wasn't about spirituality, it was about power.  Myself and other freethinkers, we just don't get how everyone doesn't see this.

I'll say here that I only have a problem with religion when it affects me.  Unfortunately, it does.  All the time.  My taxes are higher because of the vast number of churches enjoying their tax-exemptions.  Door-knockers intrude on my home way too often.  Too many of the presidential candidates are pandering to the religious right.  Every attempt to insert religious agenda into the government affects me because one of my fears is that they'll succeed.  What will happen to people like me if that happens?

Another pushed button.  Selfies.  Stop it.  Just stop.  Unless there's something or someone else in the picture to make it interesting.  And no, the empty backseat of your car or bathroom or bedroom doesn't qualify.  And for fucking sake, stop with the fish lips.  You don't look sexy or cute, you look stupid.

The Winter Solstice is finally here.  The original reason for the season, and the one of most importance for me.  If I worship anything, it's the sun, and I live for the days to grow longer.


Happy Holidays from The Wee Dark Hours.
 

End of year clearance.

Clearance?  Seemed like as good a title as any for the last day of the year.  I feel like clearing a few things out of my brain.

The war on Christmas.  Yeah, I'm going there, albeit a bit late.  You know by now, religion is not my thing.  So I get a bit irate by all the shit about Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays.  Allow me to break it down to show why this is the stupidest argument ever.

Everyone knows (or should by now) that Christmas traditions were adopted from pagan observances.  Christians go on and on about how this is their holiday, Jesus is the reason for the season, yada yada.  When the Christians were trying to convert the masses, they decided the best way was to roll the customs already in place into the religious holiday.  Including the date.  The Winter Solstice was the most important date to pagans, and Christians invented a mythological birthday to usurp it.  I haven't heard any scientific evidence that Jesus was actually born on this day.  Very little about Christmas is original to Christianity.  Yet, Christians claim it as THEIR holiday.

Let's go back to that line...the reason for the season.  SEASON.  Season is not 1 day, it's a series of days.  In the USA, it begins with Thanksgiving, and ends with New Year's Day. Over a month of days!  And it's not just those 2 holidays.  It's Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's, and if you count Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, Christmas Eve, and New Year's Eve, there's 8 holidays in that period.  8!  Christmas is only 1 day, and to insist that we say Merry Christmas the whole time is absurd.  Happy Holidays (my preference) or Season's Greetings covers it all very well.  Say whatever you want, however you feel about it, but don't push your agenda on the rest of us.  Aren't there more important things to argue about?

Oh and one more thing.  The reason for the season...the entire season beginning with Thanksgiving...is consumerism.  You can't say Jesus is the reason until you give up the gift buying and getting, and the other pagan customs.  And if you participated in Black Thursday/Friday insanity, don't turn around and thump a bible.  Pretty sure it's not what Jesus would do.

I like to write Xmas.  Some think this is rude or lazy.  No, it's not.  Look it up.  I did.  It's actually a perfectly acceptable way to write the word based on historical facts about early language and writing.  You would think Christians would like it because their beloved cross is right there in the word.  But noooo.  They want it to clearly include the word Christ.  OK, maybe it's bit lazy in my case.  BTW - I often don't capitalize words commonly capitalized by religion, either.  It's my way of expressing my disdain for organized religion.

What else?

Haven is killing me!  Turns out I was wrong, Audrey and William were lovers, and apparently really evil people...or...  Witches?  Fallen angels?  Gods or demi-gods?  Aliens?  That's going to be interesting to learn.  Probaby witches.  We learned that Audrey was originally Mara, and the Barn made her forget her original self, I guess to redeem herself for what she and William did.  But now she remembers who she was, and the Mara persona has resurfaced.  And that's how the season ended.  Grrrr!  Gonna be a long wait to see what happens next.  I wonder if we'll ever learn what the Barn is, and who the people in charge of it (Agent Howard) are.

Doctor Who's December episodes were awesome!  Every bit as good as a Whovian could want.  We got a glimpse of #12 (actually #13) and I think he'll be a wonderful Doctor!

Remember how I ragged about Dish Network's dispute with the local carrier for CBS?  Shortly after that one was resolved and the station returned to my programming, here came another.  This time it's NBC, FOX, and CW.  I'm only getting ABC and CBS now.  For crying out fuckin loud!  So I called Dish to complain, and suggest I should get a break on my bill.  I'm paying extra for those local network channels, and also for the Hopper that was designed specifically for the 4 major networks, and I'm not getting what I'm paying for.  Well, sometimes it pays to complain.  I got a $5 discount on my monthly bill for 6 months.  Yeah, 6 months!  Even if the dispute is resolved before then (jeez I hope so!), it's for 6 months.  Thanks, Dish.

CW isn't considered one of the 4 covered by the Hopper, but it's one I'd really miss.  Happily, my package includes CW from the west coast (airs after EST prime time) so I'm not missing my shows.  I just hope the dispute is resolved soon.  It's not been that big a deal right now during holiday season.  Most shows aren't picking up again until 2nd week of Jan.

Big changes coming for me in the near future.  Let's just say I got what I wanted for Xmas, and the New Year looks brighter.  That's for another day, and elsewhere.


Happy New Year!

Politically correct nonsense

Social networks may have broken civilization.  Sure, we are all connected, but the fact that anyone can post anything they want means that many things that used to be private, and still should be, now are forever available on the net.  Some issues have become a much bigger deal than they really are thanks to everyone sending things viral.

Take bullying for instance.  In a certain Facebook community that I'm part of, some people have taken it upon themselves to expose and exploit every instance of what they perceive to be bullying.  Notice I said "what they perceive".  Don't get me wrong.  There is bullying going on and always has, and it's terrible.  My definition, and I'm pretty sure the correct definition, is a directed and prolonged attack for the purpose of degrading, humiliating, or tormenting an individual.

In this particular FB community, some adults were found to be acting like stupid mean kids in a private forum, and then mercilessly persecuted to the point of shunning (an archaic practice) and even (rumored) to have cost one of the idiots his job.  At that point, the offended parties looked more like the bullies than the idiots.  Some of the offenders publicly apologized, but that wasn't enough for a couple of the group's founders, they continue to call for blood.  I saw some of what was done, and to me, it was just stupidity.  It was a private forum so the "victims" would never have seen it if another member of the private group hadn't leaked it.  So was this bullying?  Not in my book.  It wasn't a direct attack.  It was just people acting badly.

Now I see bullying apparently also includes any form of rudeness or insensitivity.  Two more things that have always been around.  This anti-bullying group has spawned members looking for any kind of unpleasant behavior, and they are reporting these slights to the group as bullying.  Yeah, it would be nice if everyone in the world could be polite and pleasant all the time, but hey, that's human beings for you.  Not gonna happen.

On another subject...dumb games.  Apparently, there is a bizarre game roving around FB, and I have to wonder what sick mind thought of this.  I've only seen parts of it, but I guess it's a sort of "Lying Game".  Someone is given a list of things to post on their status, and they have to choose from the list.  The list sounds sick!  Like one posted "I'm pregnant".  Concerned friends (not in on the "game") immediately responded with shock or sympathy or whatever they were feeling knowing this person as they do.  My friend played, and her status was so disturbing that I had to call her to find out what the fuck was going on.  When she realized that friends were scared for her, she deleted the damn thing, and promised not to do that again.  From her, I heard a few other weird items on the list.

This is what Facebook as done to us.

Enough of that, I want to talk about TV.  Finally, Dish settled their dispute with CBS, and it's back in my programming as of yesterday.  Bout time.  The shows I watched most have always rerun episodes, so I hope that happens.  One I really missed was The Good Wife.  I'll be so far behind.

The much anticipated Doctor Who 50th Anniversary episode is this weekend, and then the Christmas special where the 12th Doctor debutes in December.  I now have the entire series (Docter #9 to present) collected on the DVR.  It took a while to gather it all, but luckily BBC ran it during the day as well as during prime time.  Everything will be going on hiatus for the holidays, so it looks like a good time for some marathons.

Still loving the Peter Pan arc on Once Upon A Time, and still ambivalent about Once...In Wonderland.  At least I've now got it straight that these are in no way connected.  The Pan character is fascinating and the actor plays it perfectly.  Now we know his backstory, and I didn't see that coming.  Spoilers.

Another of my favorites has taken a dark turn that I didn't expect.  On Haven, William has become really evil, and is somehow connected to Audrey and the Troubles.  He says they created the Troubles together.  Can't say I'm pleased with this twist.  I loved Colin Ferguson as the lovable and funny sheriff on Eureka, and I was hoping he could be a regular in Haven.  Now it looks like he has to die, so that's kind of wrong for me.

I have theories about who William is, and how he's connected to Audrey.  One is the obvious...they were romantically involved.  He has said that she loved him.  But it's so obvious, I'm not really buying it.  Their connection is physical and supernatural, so I'm favoring another theory.  They're siblings, maybe even twins.  That would explain their love and connection.  Or they are one person split into dark and light sides.  This is a bizarre universe so that could happen.  Can't wait to see if I'm right, or if there's something completely different.  It says a lot about a show that when it first aired, I wasn't sure if I'd like it, and now I'm obsessed.

Letsee, what else.  Dancing With The Stars has gone the usual ridiculous way.  Good dancers gone, and clutzy looking people surviving on sympathy votes.  I was really surprised by Snooki's run.  Yeah, that Jersey Shore trainwreck is all growed up and behaving like a responsible adult.  Good on her!  She was a damn good dancer, and a pretty cute package, but then she was gone.  The finale is next week and I don't give a shit who wins.  It no longer matters.  We're not going to see amazing dances (except maybe Corbin), and I expect the Free Styles to be meh.

Oh and can we say Saturday Night Live!  Fabulous!  I saved the one with Kerry Washington parodying "What Does The Fox Say?"  Sooo goood!  Miley Cyrus has been back, and last week it was Lady Gaga.  Someone break Gaga into acting, she can do it!  I loved the skit where they slammed Kimye (you know I hate them!), and Gaga was a hapless Apple employee.  It was just great all around.  You're missing good stuff this season if you aren't watching SNL!


Good morning.

Long time, no write

I'll start with TV.  The fall season has finally started, and the DVR is busy busy busy.

The Originals on CW is DELICIOUS!  Finally, a new vampire series for adults.  I watch The Vampire Diaries, but I'm usually annoyed by the teenage angst.  And Elena.  Even when she was bad, she was incredibly annoying.  The main reason I watch is Damon (Ian Somerholder).  He's hot, he's funny, and he has an honest soul...he's true to himself.  I never understood the Stephan character being the main love interest because I don't find him the least bit attractive.  Same for Robert Pattinson (Twilight).  I'd like to see Damon crossover to New Orleans sometimes.  Without Elena.  That would be cool.

I will add The Originals to the Library when it's released on DVD.  I really hope they include the episodes from The Vampire Diaries that told of their origins.  This family of original vampires is fascinating and sexy.  And no, TVD has not and will not be added to the Library.

BTW, what is it about Louisiana and New Orleans that's so attractive to supernatural beings?  True Blood is there, Anne Rice's vampires and witches are there.  I believe there are more I can't think of right now.

Also looking forward to the Dracula series.  Jonathan Rhys Meyers has been a crush since August Rush, which is one of my favorite flicks.  I'm not really into period pieces, so I didn't follow The Tudors, but I did watch a little to see JRM.  I think he'll make a perfectly sexy vampire.

Not sure how I feel about Once Upon A Time In Wonderland, yet.  I'm glad that Once Upon A Time seems to have returned to the original concept this season.  That being the twisted retelling of fairy tales, and weekly back stories.  It got a little unnecessary and boring in season 2.   So far, I don't see that with In Wonderland.  It looks a lot like every other version of it.  I guess it will be told, but I'm confused by the Red Queen.  We know that Cora (Regina's mother) was the Queen of Hearts, so who is the Red Queen?  One character I was hoping to see In Wonderland was the The Mad Hatter.  I loved him in Once.  He's been mentioned as being gone for a long time.  Was he really and truly killed?  We know that doesn't always mean anything.

I do like a couple twists in Wonderland, so hopefully that sort of thing will continue.  Like Peter Pan.  What a fantastic, sinister version of him, and the actor is perfect.  Tinkerbell as a fallen fairy was unexpected.  Don't care for the nightmarish Cheshire Cat, isn't he supposed to be benevolent?  And how come the White Rabbit wasn't human when he went to Real World?  That's one of the things that make it look like every other version of the story.

Actually, as I reread what I just wrote there, I realize I'm confusing the 2 series.  Yeah, that's the problem with Once Upon A Time In Wonderland.  They shouldn't have run the story lines at the same time.  How can this be happening in Once Upon A Time at the same time?  Is In Wonderland actually the back story for what's happening in Once?

Haven (Syfy) is back.  I'm so hooked on this one.  Last season was outstanding as we learned more about Audrey and the Barn.  I just wish her love interest was Duke instead of Nathan.  I really don't care for Nathan (like Stephan).  Duke on the other hand is like Damon...a sexy, funny, honest soul.

Sleepy Hollow is cool!  So is The Blacklist.  I love me some James Spader!  Look up some of his early movies, he was pretty hot when he was young, and had surfer boy hair to die for.  Boston Legal is when I fell in love with him, and I watch the reruns whenever they come around.

A series I thought would just go one season apparently is going for a second.  Under The Dome.  In the first few episodes, we wondered, is this the government or aliens?  I ran across a reference on Facebook to the Stephen King novel it's based on, and went a-googling, and found spoilers.  I don't hate spoilers, sometimes I just really want to know.  The drama was getting in the way of my knowing!  Turns out it's aliens.  It looks like the series is pretty true to the book, but I think they could have wrapped it up in one season.

Another series getting in my way is Revolution.  I want to know more about the nano-tech, and the how and why of it, but there's all that fuckin fighting going on.  I actually fast-forward through a lot of it.  It's boring and doesn't interest me.  Tell more story, less unnecessary action.

Pretty annoyed with the Powers That Be.  Dish Network is in dispute with the company that controls CBS in my area, and I'm not getting it at all.  I think Dish owes me some credit.  I'm paying extra for local network channels, and the Hopper (which I also pay for) is specifically designed for the 4 networks.  Luckily, there aren't that many shows on CBS that I miss, but there are some.  Sure hope I can catch up in reruns when they finally get it worked out.  If this dispute has anything to do with the lawsuit against Dish for the auto-hop feature, I say let it go.  I don't need this if it will end up costing me.  Still got the FF and skip buttons on the remote, and that's good enough.  Auto-hop only works on the 4 networks during prime time anyways.

What else?

I feel embarrassed to be an American these days.  We are supposed to be the most powerful and enlightened country in the world, and look at us.  I imagine the rest of the world is laughing at us, and our enemies are rubbing their hands in delight as they watch us bicker and implode.   It's just too sad.

Warning...here's my inner hippie coming out.  Why must we always be at war?  We are, you know.  When we don't have a real war we make one up.  War on Terrorism, War on Drugs, War on Christmas.  Really?  It's like we need War to define our place in the world.  We don't need a War on Terrorism because there are already laws against it.  War on Drugs, well, we know that's a bust (pun intended).  War on Christmas, ok, that's just plain silly, but the media made it a thing.

I admit I don't follow things that closely.  I just get so bored and annoyed with the media going on and on about shit to the point that it makes no sense at all.  But it seems to me the ones who are crying that Obama (the Democrats) is destroying the constitution have forgotten what the Republicans would do to it.  Sure, you'd get to keep your guns and your wars, but you'll lose personal freedoms to the conservative (religious) agenda.  To my eye, Republicans are Big Business, and Democrats are the Common Man.  Which one are you?

And again I ask.  Why are there parties in the first place?  I should look that up.  Just when did the Parties form, and who formed them?  How, when, and why were those lines drawn?


Good morning.

Update on the DVR

I went to Best Buy and got the external harddrive I needed.  Turns out it was considerably more expensive than I thought it would be so that was a bit of a drag.  So what did I do?  I procrastinated backing up the DVR.  Yeah, you probably guessed it.  It died for good on Wednesday (the day before the Hopper was coming) and I hadn't backed it up yet.  What the fuck was I thinking?  My reasoning was to clear out as much as possible (as in watching it) before I backed it up.  Murphy's Law.  Now it's all gone.  Dammit.

I was able to get the box working so I could watch tv.  Damn, how spoiled am I?  I found tv kinda boring without the ability to record it or even pause it.  I missed my late night shows that I don't stay up for.  I handled it pretty well I think.  I was resigned instead of stomping around swearing about it.  I didn't dwell on it, and watched DVDs instead.  Have quite a few I haven't watched yet so that was ok.  When I did watch tv, it was the old-fashioned way...short attention span channel surfing.

The Hopper came yesterday.  Turns out Dish Network isn't completely upfront in advertising what it can do.  Yes, it can record 6 things at once, but there's a catch.  The old unit had 2 tuners.  That's how you record 2 things at once, or record one while watching another.  The Hopper has 3, but the 3rd tuner is dedicated to just the 4 primetime networks.  ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC.  You can't pick the shows on these networks.  Your only options are the days of week and the networks, and it will only record the primetime slots.  That's 8pm to 11pm.  It records all the primetime shows on the days and channels you choose.

Now that I understand it, I can live with that.  Thursday and Sunday are the only days (at this time) that I have set up for it.  Thursday, there are things I like on all 4 networks and that worked out well last night.  I gave up some things on Thursdays with the old box.  I just deleted the ones I didn't want to watch.  Sunday, there's just the 2 networks I'm interested in.  Otherwise, I have to do as I always have...juggle time slots by setting timers individually.  That's ok, I'm pretty good at that.

There's also the Auto Hop that Dish is touting to skip commercials.  Don't know how long that will last if they lose the suit challenging it.  I tried it this morning, and it's pretty cool.  It begins the skip with the beginning of 1st ad in the commercial slot and ends at the end of the last one.  So you see snippets of the 2 ads, but the rest is invisible.  This only works on the primetime recordings set up with the 3rd tuner, and you can't use it until the next day.  It doesn't work the same day the recording was made.  It's not a deal breaker for me.  I'm used to the skip button to fast forward past ads.  Believe it or not, I do occasionally back up to see an ad that caught my attention for whatever reason.

I have to rave about the technician!  He was AWESOME!  I wish he could see this so he'd know how much I appreciate all he did for me.  I did answer the phone when Dish called for my feedback survey, and gave him all the highest marks.

He definitely went beyond the call of duty.  I mentioned that I'd like to talk about moving the dish.  It was mounted on the porch roof which is going to need rebuilding in the near future.  He said he couldn't do it today, but would be glad to come back out when he could.  He said it could be put on the pole behind the house that holds my electric service.  There was a dish there (still there as I never took it down) when I moved here, but the guy who installed my dish back then said it couldn't go there even though he tacked the Dish connector box on the pole.  Turns out it was a safety thing being so close to the electric service, not a technical issue.  And probably a lazy grumpy tech.  Quentin said he wasn't bothered by it.  Then he just went ahead and did it!  He was having trouble getting the new box to respond to the dish, and was using the process of elimination to solve the problem.  The first thing he tried was the cable coming into the house.  He replaced it all!  I helped with that by feeding it through the floor while he pulled the end outside.  Then he moved the dish (and removed the one that was there) which I didn't know he had done until he told me.  He was that fast!  Then he replaced something on the dish.  He was getting frustrated by then, and as a last resort, he forced the box to reboot again.  Voila, fixed.  But I got all that other stuff upgraded in the process.  He also gave me his personal number.  Told me to call him directly if I had any problems.  He doesn't live far from me.  He was just great!

In other tech news, I think there's a solution to my internet problem.  Verizon has been pushing this new mobile hotspot gadget.  I thought it was for wi-fi which I don't have available so I didn't look into it any further.  When I was at Best Buy getting the harddrive, I also talked with the Geek about the Microsoft Surface.  Remember, I said a while back that this was the tablet for me.  Yeah, still is.  Maybe when the back-to-school tax holiday comes around, but it's pretty pricey for what would mostly be a toy for me so I can wait to see if prices come down.  So anyways, the conversation digressed to the hotspot and apparently it is something I might need.  It's not about wi-fi, it's about sharing the internet connection between devices.  It works like the mobile broadband modem I have without the buggy software to run it, and should connect to 4G just fine.  I think it's cheaper than my current plan, or I can get more bandwidth for what I pay now.  Either way, I'd come out ahead.  I'll be dropping in the Verizon store to talk to a guy.  Not sure when my 2 yr contract is up on the modem.  It should be up.  The Best Buy guy could have set it up for me but I needed to make sure I was clear for a new plan first.  There's a closer Verizon store right here in town so I'll just go that way.

Good morning.

Electronics behaving badly.

Had an annoying couple days ago.  First, the Dish DVR had a tantrum.  This has been happening for a while.  The following could be signs your DVR harddrive is aging.

It freezes up while in just about any mode.  If I'm watching a recording, I can usually fix it by forcing a reboot (unplug it), waiting for it to go through its boot cycle which can take up to 10 minutes (grrr), and then fast forwarding past the hang up in the recording.  It occasionally freezes while watching live tv.

It pixelates.  The picture looks scrambled for a few moments...little squares like a jigsaw puzzle.  This usually happened in recordings, but sometimes while switching channels.  I noticed it happened at certain times in recordings.  When 2 events begin recording at the same time, or a 2nd one begins while another is in progress, or while I'm watching a recording when another begins.  The pixelations appeared at those points.  I don't know, this might be somewhat normal when asking the DVR to multi-task,  but it seems to happen more often lately.

It began to be noisy.  It would roar like an overworked computer.  Not all the time, just here and there.  About a week ago it froze and put up an alert that the unit was overheating.  Whoa.  Never saw that before. I went to the box and it was very hot.  My bad, the vents were clogged with dust.  Word to the wise, vacuum the vents regularly.  I did that and unplugged it until it cooled off.  Since then, the fan is roaring more often.  The unit isn't overheating, in fact, it's stayed pretty cool, but the fan is still coming on loudly.

Since I've been wanting the new Hopper (records 6 things at once!), I decided maybe I better do it before the thing fails completely.  And this day, it did.  It froze in the program guide.  The grid blinked out, leaving the little picture in the corner, and then that went away and the screen was black.  Zip nada.  That was new.  It has froze in the guide before, but not like that.  I spent the next hour or more rebooting with no results and finally called tech support, and ordering the Hopper was to be my other reason for calling.  It's only a few bucks more and I'm sure I will like it.  The technician was very nice and spent a good hour with me on the phone while we tried to get my box working again.  Finally did.  It wasn't anything new we did, I had already done all that.  It just...I don't know...got over its tantrum this time.

So the Hopper is coming Thursday, and I have a dilemma.  I have a lot of things saved on the DVR.  2 series that I haven't watched yet.  Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries.  I save the entire season to watch at once.  They're not in HD so don't take up much room on the drive, and I just enjoy these shows as a marathon.  Quite a bit of The Daily Show I haven't watched yet.  BTW...bummer!  Jon Stewart is going on hiatus to pursue another project and turning the show over to someone else for 3 months or more.  Don't know if it will be as good for me without him.  He is The Daily Show, you know.  I've saved some series finales, music videos, and random things I haven't watched yet.

I asked the tech if the installer could transfer what's on my DVR to the new unit and apparently not.  Really?  Why don't these things have that simple feature?  How hard could it be?  My only option is a high capacity external harddrive (it can do that, but not a simple transfer???), and a quick search online says it will cost over $70.  Well shit.  I don't want to lose my stuff, and I can't watch it all by Thursday.  I'll look at Walmart (cheaper, if they have it) but I think I'll be better off going to Best Buy so I can talk to a Geek and make sure I get the right one, and he should be able to explain the process.

So there was that.  Then my internet went wonky the next day.  This happens sometimes but hasn't happened in a long time.  I blame the crappy software for the wireless modem.  It's always acting up, and apparently the Powers That Be don't think it's worth fixing.  I guess because of the internet phones and tablets that more people use these days.  That's where the wireless companies put their efforts, to hell with the rest of us.  I wasn't able to get online at all, and even after going through all the protocols (open/close app, unplug/replug modem and sim card, uninstall/reinstall software) several times, it wouldn't connect.  I had to walk away from the computer after fucking with it for way too long, and then it got over its tantrum.  The next time I tried, it worked.  Hmmpf.

There was an update since I bought the modem with its original software CD, but now it won't let me download the update.  Fuckin fine.  As long as it will connect, I'll live with the old software.  I am going to drop in the local Verizon store and see if anyone there has any insight on how to make it better.  Tech support by phone has been no help.  They just run me through the protocols I already know.  Maybe my modem is aging, or maybe a different brand is better.  Oh yeah, and it's supposed to be 4G.  Haven't been able to connect to that in a long long time.  I'm chugging along with 3G.  There's a 4G signal available, the stupid software refuses to connect to it.

Then there was my personal glitch.  One of the last things I saw on the internet Friday was the reminders about Daylight Savings Time.  So I changed all the clocks before I went to bed.  I didn't do the atomic clock on the weather station.  It should update itself.  I checked it the next morning to make sure it did, and it hadn't.  Oh duh...it's Saturday, dipstick. That happens on Sunday, you know.  Wasn't changing them back, so I had to remember what time it really was when I looked at a clock.  That reinforced how dumb DST is.  It doesn't change the length of daylight, just how you relate to it.  Supposed to save energy, but I don't see how that works.  The way I see it, it's the same hour of use at a different time of day.  Anyways, I guess that was a senior moment for me.  Hey, when you're retired without a real daily schedule, everyday is Saturday.

Enjoy the hour.  Good morning.

Memories of the 60's.

Thanks to "Mad Men".  I just recently began watching this.  I don't know why I wasn't before.  I guess I didn't notice it in my program lineup because AMC is not a channel I watch regularly.  Then it began reruns from the beginning on Sunday mornings so I began catching up with the DVR.  Then Dish Network dropped the channel for a while.  That angered "Walking Dead" fans more than anything, but I'm not one of those.  I don't get the current fascination with zombies.  They're gross and I don't enjoy being grossed out.  I have started other new series and immediately stopped when they grossed me out in the first episode.  But I was annoyed I was missing Mad Men after getting into it.  Then AMC and Mad Men were back again on a different channel number.  I think I'm mostly caught up.  At least as far as where the reruns are at.

I was a kid in the 60's.  I was 10 and in school when Kennedy was shot and remember the announcement over the PA, and later watching the funeral on tv.  I vaguely remember the racial riots in Detroit because it slightly affected my family.  You see, my dad was a boater.  We had a boat all my kid life and spent every weekend and week-long vacations on it, traveling the waterways around Michigan.  I remember we had to cut a vacation short or change plans or something to avoid being near Detroit at that time.  I really can't remember that well, but I think we may have even been at a marina there and had to leave quickly when it began.  But I don't really remember most of the major events of the 60's because I was just a kid.

Mad Men has made me remember the little things about that era.  The clothes, the furniture, the attitudes.  Smoking for instance.  The first thing I noticed when I began watching was that almost everybody smoked and they did it EVERYWHERE.  At work, in stores and restaurants.  Even hospitals.  I was really surprised to see a doctor smoking in his exam room.  Did they really do that?  At least he put down his cigarette in an ashtray when he began the exam, but it was there burning the whole time.  Pregnant women smoked (and drank alcohol), too, including my mother.  Attitudes about drinking were also pretty liberal.  They did it freely while driving and at work.  There was an episode where the Drapers had a picnic at a roadside park and just left their trash on the ground when they left.  I think people really did that kind of thing back then!  People just didn't give a shit about any of that stuff.

Many things on the Mad Men sets were in my parents' house.  The decor and artwork.  Danish Modern furniture was the trend and my folks had it.   Olive green or gold kitchen appliances, ugly wallpaper, knotty pine woodwork and paneling.  My parents had the exact same inlaid wood tribal dancers framed art on the wall.  I wanted to include the image here but I couldn't find it.  It's not been that long ago I saw the exact same pieces in a roadside antique shop so I can't believe it isn't online somewhere.  I'm sure it was cheap mass-produced art as my folks didn't have the money for finer things, and it was about keeping up with the Jones back then.  No, I wasn't tempted to buy that art when I saw it in that little shop...it's ugly and it was ugly when I was a kid.

Another memory revived by Mad Men was the total eclipse.  That was in the episode I saw this week, and the spark for this blog entry.  This also was in 1963, according to the date on a document that was shown on the episode.  I remember this vividly because I was so scared.  The other kids in school went around saying don't look or you'll go blind.  In the MM episode, a teacher was helping her students make viewing boxes.  I had to think about this memory as my teachers were no help in this, and I remember spending the weekend worrying about it.  Then I recalled how that day went for me.  I woke up that morning afraid to even look AT the window, let alone go outside.  Now I know it was a Sunday and I wasn't in school that day.  In MM, it was apparently an after-school field trip project.  I remember because it was the Sunday paper that had instructions on how to make the viewing box.  I remember how excited I was when I saw it in the comics section of the paper.  My dad helped me whip up the box in time for the eclipse, and once I had it, I was ok.  I knew I could look outside, just not at the sun directly, and I could see the eclipse reflected in the box.  Now, of course, we know we can watch an eclipse as long as we wear very dark glasses.  I had a pair of those odd little tanning eye shields the next time a total eclipse happened in my adult life and was able to watch it that way.  Don Draper on MM simply put his sunglasses on and looked up, and we saw it reflected in his shades.

Mad Men is sort of strange in the acting and characters, but I think the reason we watch is for the history of that time.  It's pretty damn accurate.


Good morning.

Real life vs. Facebook life

"I have better friends in all you guys that I've not met in person than in people I have been 'friends' with for years. Kinda hard when you really need someone to care for once. Dang near cry out for help and just get ignored. Sometimes, I wish FB wasn't invented....at least then I would THINK I still had real friends."

This is one of the strangest Facebook status posts I've seen, and one of the saddest examples of how FB has affected society.  I don't know this person, she's just one of the people on my friend list due to common interests.

This status so caught my attention, I had to comment on it.  Not on FB, I don't join conversations that should have remained private between only closest friends.  What happened here?  Maybe her obsession with FB isolated her from the people in her real life.  When she didn't get the responses she wanted to her pleas for sympathy, she turned to FB where you can count on people to give you warm and fuzzy.  Those FB "friends" don't know you, but feel they must respond because you begged for a response (and will then whine more if you don't get any) and give you the sympathetic bullshit you wanted.  They probably don't have a clue what your vague status post was about.  They might PM you to find out but that's what you wanted, isn't it.    Most won't PM because they're genuinely concerned, they're just nosy.  They won't say anything negative for fear of being slammed for having a differing opinion and then being defriended.  So why is their response valid?  Just because it's what you wanted?  Did the people in your real life know the whole story and you know they won't give the response you want?

I can't get over the fact that so many people think the word "friend" on Facebook really means friend.  Come on, no one has 1,953 friends.  At best you are acquaintances.  Sure, some virtual friendships are real and might turn into a real life one, but most are not.  A true friend will disagree with you sometimes, but we know how that goes on FB.  Disagree...defriend.  Why would anyone want to share intimate details of their life with the internet?  Ok, some do want that, but normal people are usually more discriminating and private about what they share.

There was a movie that didn't get much respect - The Invention of Lying.  I liked it.  It was about a world where no one lied, ever.  They literally didn't think of lying until one man accidently told a lie.  It was hilarious how brutally honest people were.  A response was required, or they just wanted to say something, and absolute truth came out.  Can you imagine if Facebook was like that?

On a related subject...drunk texting or high texting or whatever it is that makes people give TMI.  I sometimes get a chuckle out of that.  I learn a lot more about "friends" than I would (or should) in real life, I'm sure.


Good morning.

I want that.

Gadget Pron was one of my favorite segments on Attack of the Show.  They reviewed and rated gadgets, and I will really miss this.  I don't know where else to get hands-on reviews.  Reading a review or watching a carefully crafted and probably biased video doesn't give me what I need to know.  I want an unbiased visual opinion.  Matt Mira took over Gadget Pron after Chris Hardwick moved on and I like both guys.  They're smart and funny, and they know their gadgets.

A lot of the things they review aren't really of interest to me, but I always watched it through.  I might need to know that someday.  Like smart phones.  Don't see me having one.  But cameras, computers, tablets.  I might get one.

I'd like a tablet but not enough to get one right now.  Internet connectivity is the main issue there.  My internet is via a mobile broadband modem plugged into my pc and run with software.  Not compatible with current tablets.  I'd have to buy into a separate data plan from a wireless carrier, and I can't justify another expensive wireless bill.  Have to make do with what I've got.

Then the new Microsoft Surface began to tease in tv commercials.  Ooooh...

I was so happy to see it handled on Gadget Pron this week.  And he likes it, he really likes it.  Matt Mira admits to being an Apple loyalist so this was saying a lot.  He gave it 4.5 out of 5.  He docked it for not yet having a well stocked app store, and the initial release is only available with wifi.  He said (I paraphrase) the build was excellent, the docking (with magnets!) keyboard/cover and kickstand were nifty, and the OS fairly smooth.

Yeah, that's the kinds of things I want to know.  I went looking to see what I could find out about its capabilities for alternative internet connects.  It just might (I hope I hope) accept my modem.  It all depends on whether I can load the modem's software, or maybe they'll even build something in to streamline it for exterior modems.  It has a USB port for it, so that part is good to go.

Yep, I'll be watching this gadget.  Not right away, but someday in the not too distant future.  They should have the bugs worked out, and hopefully the price lowered by the time I'm ready to commit.


Good morning.

Ragtime

That used to be a euphemism for my menstrual cycle, but it no longer applies in that respect.  Now it means time to rag about shit.

I came within inches (fucking inches!!!) of my first car accident yesterday.  First since I moved here 8 years ago.  These southerners drive so badly, I'm amazed it hasn't happened yet.  I'm very wary of them.  I was waiting in a parking lot aisle for a spot opening up.  2 cars back where I was sitting, another began to back out.  I had no where to go.  There was someone behind me, and the car I was waiting on was also backing out.  I was a sitting duck.  Her rear bumper was dead on to hit under my driver's door handle and cave in my door.  I rarely do this but I began to lay on the horn.  A LOT!  She kept coming!  Finally the dumb bitch realized the honking was right behind her, and stopped about 6" from hitting me.  How she didn't see my not small car that should have filled ALL her rear view mirrors is beyond me, not to mention if she had just turned around and looked.  Or how she didn't hear my horn.  Thank god she did finally pay attention to what the fuck was going on around her.  My day would have been really ruined.  Of course this was a young lady probably yakking at the person in the passenger seat or worse...they were both paying attention to a phone.

After that, my mood deteriorated.  I did accomplish what I planned and got most of the things I went out for, but that little incident ate at me, and another dipshit young lady who pulled out in front of me also probably on the fucking phone didn't help.   By the time I got home, I was in a pretty pissy mood, so I indulged in fast food and tv for the rest of the day.

Sure will be glad when this election is over.  Last time I talked about why I don't vote.  Here's another.  Politicians lie.  Government lies.  We, the people, don't know what they are lying about, or what's the truth.  Politicians tell you want they think you want to hear.  I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I do believe an awful lot goes on our supposedly transparent and democratic government that we will never know, and it's not for the common good.

Romney shoots his mouth off a lot, and apparently has no filter between his brain and his mouth.  His handlers need to put a muzzle on him.  A lot was made about how badly the debates (no, I didn't watch) went for Obama, but from what I have seen in the media, he was the bigger man.  He didn't resort to mud slinging which many saw as befuddlement.  I saw it as dignified, what our president should be, and what Romney is not.  I admit I haven't tried to find out exactly what the candidates' plan is for the country, but so far, I don't see that Romney has a plan past getting elected.  At least I haven't heard it.

Yeah, you're right.  IF I voted, it wouldn't be Romney.  The devil you know and all that.  Obama has accomplished some of the things he promised.  I don't know what the hell Romney is promising.

Oh and everyone (pro-Romney everyone) is so in love with Paul Ryan for VP.  All I can see is a walking caricature.  Come on, you don't see a cartoon character in that dopey grin?

I had a brilliant idea after thinking about all that, and how much money is thrown at Romney.  How about we ban campaign donations.  BTW, just where does that dollar they ask for on tax returns go?  Do we have a choice which party it goes to?  I say stop it.  Let the candidates use their own money WITHOUT a tax break.  After all, we can't claim that donation on our return, why should they?  In this age of internet, it's not like they'd have to spend that much.  Just for whatever print, radio or tv time they want, and signs on lawns. Maybe they wouldn't be so free with the bullshit and mudslinging.  They'd think a bit more carefully about their media exposure if they had to pay for it themselves.  So much good all the millions in campaign donations could do for a worthy cause.  This is one of the most corrupt aspects of elections I can think of.  Obviously the ones donating it have an agenda they expect the candidate to follow.  How is that not a bribe?

What else.  I just learned Attack of the Show is ending at the end of the year.   Big bummer.  This is the geek show on G4.  As well as seeing viral videos before they hit other sites like Facebook, I got tech news that I didn't know I needed to know.  Like the fact that Best Buy is matching prices with Amazon and Walmart in November, or how proposed legislation could impact the internet.  They critiqued DVD releases and gadgets.  They interviewed stars from the shows and movies in the genres of sci-fi, action, and horror.  They took field trips to interesting nerdy places.  All the things we nerds love.  And now it will be gone.  I don't spend much time searching tech sites or YouTube, mostly due to my less than ideal internet connection speed.  It will be greatly missed.

Speaking of Amazon.  WTF is up with their pricing?  I've been watching the price on the Farscape entire series box set and it fluctuates like gas prices!  It changed so often, I added it as a bookmark so I could see without logging into my wish list.  A couple days ago, I decide to take advantage of Amazon's credit card offer which gives a healthy gift card (the price of the item at that time) for enrollment, and the price on the box set hadn't changed for a few days.  Well hell.  It was the next day before I was approved and guess what?  The price immediately went up!  For crying out loud!  So I'm back to waiting for the price I'm willing to pay.

I don't really need another credit card, but I do shop Amazon a lot, and it pays decent cash back on Amazon purchases, and there's that initial gift card.  I just won't use it for anything else.

I've updated the DVD Library with the lastest additions.  Avengers (awesome!), and I broke down and got a few I was on the fence about.  Dark Shadows (liked it), Rock of Ages (haven't watched yet), and Snow White & Huntsman (haven't watched yet).  BTW, some of the tv series I don't actually have the entire series yet, but I will as soon as I can get my hands on them, so I list it as complete as I have it.

Oh yeah and Magic Mike.  My fav film expert Chris Gore (Attack of the Show) recommended it as a buy.  Not for the reasons you might think.  He's straight, and suggested guys leave it laying around their place to get laid.  He said he liked it and the dance sequences were very good.  He also said Matthew McConaughey was hilarious and I love me some Matt McC.   Good enough for me.  I think I'll watch it tonite.

Good morning.

What's Up

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Of talent contests, checkout lines, Dallas, and more

America's Got Talent (not so much) and So You Think You Can Dance (yes, you can) are finishing up the auditions.

AGT.  I like Howard Stern.  I liked Piers Morgan for the same reason.  It needs someone somewhat impartial to balance Sharon's and Howie's biased preferences.  Stern seems to be handling that pretty well.  Haven't seen any amazing talent yet.  What they have put through is boring.  No amazing singers or anything.  A lot of the acts were pretty lame.

"Horse" made it through 1st cuts.  Really?  Come on.  This is a dumb shit of a teen (I don't think he's a teen anymore) who went YouTube viral as the king of nutshots.  I've seen him on other viral video clip shows like Web Soup and Attack of the Show.  He started with pulling a heavy load with his dick, and then taking hits to the crotch.  How is this a Vegas act?  There wasn't any other act better than this to put through?  Yes, there was.  This isn't talent, this is fucking stupid.  I thought this was supposed to be a family show.  You'd think the show and judges would like to inspire youth, but they should do this?  Hopefully the young "men" who think this is a way to get famous won't be able to procreate.  Can Horse even get it up?  He's been doing this for so long Numbnuts is a more fitting nickname.  And the young ladies who think guys like this are cool?  Yeah, they shouldn't be having babies either.

You may have heard about the war vet who scammed everyone with his sob story.  This guy wasn't more than a mediocre guitar strummer/singer to begin with.  Wisely, the producers decided to not give this guy any more air time and the judges voted him off with no fanfare.  There was just a quick shot in the rejection montage of him crying without even mentioning his name.  Good, well handled.

Why do the producers waste so much air time on the back stage drama if the people don't make it to the live show?  Well, ok, sometimes it's funny.  Like when someone really thinks they're good and go on about how unique and million dollar Vegas worthy their act is...but isn't.  But the sob stories?  Why do we need them?  Save it for later if the act makes it to the live show.  Or not.  I hate the crybabies because I think it's all faked to earn sympathy votes.  That guy proved that.  You sob story doesn't make you a headlining act.

SYTYCD should be really good this season.  Really really good.  I complained that last season was rather boring with too much contemporary, but maybe they heard (read?) me?  The top 20 debuted in their 1st routines and it was awesome.  A 3-way cha cha (2 girls, 1 boy), a 3-way ballet (2 boys, 1 girl).  Very cool routines.  If you're excited about "Magic Mike", you need to see those 2 ballet boys.  Oh baby.  They've got pretty faces to go with their pretty bodies.  If they mix up the dance styles they way they mixed up the dancers, it's going to be great.  Besides the 3 ballroom and 3 ballet dancers, and the usual contemporary and jazz dancers, there's a belly dancer, a stepper, a martial artist, and an animator.  Animator?  I've seen the style but hadn't heard the term before.  It's like the robot dance on steroids.  There's also a new format.  There won't be results shows.  Not sure how eliminations will work, but apparently there will only be one episode per week (boo) and in the end there will be 2 winners...a boy and a girl.

One day in the checkout line at Walmart.  After looking at my options, I chose the lane with 1 nearly empty cart.  And waited.  I had got behind 3 people shopping out of the same cart.  It was almost a comedy act.  It appeared to be a mom, her son, and his girlfriend.  Turns out there were 3 separate bills in that cart.  None were that big, mom's was the biggest and partially loaded in another cart at the end, but for some reason it was awfully complicated.  It's possible there was another bill for a person not along for the shopping trip.

I realized half the complication was their eating.  They had hit the in-house McD's before they checked out.  They were trying to sort out and pay their individual bills while stuffing their faces and bickering the entire time.  Mom never shut up!  It looked like things were just being moved around.  Here, this goes in this bag.  No, wait it stays in that cart, and this goes there.  The girlfriend was the only one who seemed to have it together, and she looked a bit embarrassed by the mom/son routine.  You know how you try not to be rude and stare?  This was one of those things you had to try real hard not to be obvious about watching and listening, but it was so fascinating that I couldn't not watch and eavesdrop.  I wonder how people like that function in life.

Dallas!  What fun!  Maybe you aren't old enough to remember Dallas.  Back in its day, it was a BIG DEAL.  It was one of the first primetime soaps and the most successful.  Well, it's back!  TNT has revived it, and it picks up where it left off 20 odd years ago.  Money and power, and schemes, scams and shady characters.  This reincarnation has brought back many of the original actors in their former roles, including Larry Hagman as the now elderly but no less sly and evil J.R.  Ewing.  It's not a remake, it's the story continued.

Brand X.  This is Russell Brand's little show on FX and I just caught it last night.  I like him.  Not his movies, those were awful, but I like his stand-up.   His hilarious British accent has a lot to do with it.  I'm not sure how much was scripted and how much is ad-libbed.  I think it's 50/50.  He's basically doing a 30 minute monologue for a live audience with a guest and a graphics screen off to the side to help him.  This first show the guest was a young political analyst or something.  Brand wanted to know what the American equivalent of the Dali Lama was.  So he ran through various American politicos and celebrities with the guest explaining how some might fit the role.  He's really very astute with a quick wit.  I liked it.  It probably won't be a long-lived show but I'll watch while it's here.

Grass.  I have the mowing down to an hour.  1 hour!  That includes getting off to open and close 2 gates.  The mandatory safety features on the tractor require that the mower deck is disengaged, trans out of gear, and the brake set before you get off the seat, or it stalls.  So that takes up a little time.  Sometimes there's an extra stop when I forgot to move something out of the way before I started.  Still hate to cut the grass, but I guess I can handle an hour every 2 weeks.  2 weeks?  Yep, pretty much.  The last time I mowed was 13 days ago.  It's more often during spring but as summer goes on, it needs it less often.  I mow no lawn before its time.  After the current baking heat wave and lack of rain, I shouldn't need to mow again for a while.

Good morning.