Categories
NoJoMo

4

When you’ve been at this for so many years, almost everything is a flashback. This one is to 2016.

Write about someone you’ve recently lost.

Happily, lately, there really hasn’t been anyone. Again, don’t want to get too much into the particulars of where I am, or what I’m doing, but the 2016 flashback I linked is very relevant. I asked my brother yesterday about our late grandmother’s house; he didn’t know, and hadn’t heard from our uncle’s partner(?). (I think they’d finally married) who took ownership at his death.

*checks FB*

Not sure she’s still on my friends list, even. (How’s that for a Myspace callback?) Something to check on when I’ve got some more time, maybe.

But happy 97th birthday to my maternal grandfather, who was doing well at last interaction. He shares a birthday with my late uncle. (And, if you do the quick math, these are Valentine’s Day products…) I’d been worried, but he’s got a new cane that helps him get around, and he’s still in the place he and my grandmother bought towards the end of her life, and before Katrina.

So, 800-pound gorilla in the room, let’s call him Harambe, since Elephants are no longer allowed in Ohio again, and they seem intent on digging up failed experiments from the 2000s; hi, Senator Brown.

Yesterday’s elections were kind of a disaster.

Eliana Johnson was on the WTF stream last night as things were falling apart.

Her recap in The Free Beacon was pretty good.

I don’t even know where to start with analysis, and what they’re going to do.

It looks like they’re already splintering internally, which isn’t at all surprising.

They don’t have the margins to do some of the really stupid things the DSA people want.

And they’ll do nothing until they’ve got to re-inflate the carcass “both sides” have been blowing up since about 1991. Debt ceiling comes first (again), then probably a stopgap appropriation to keep the government running through the 2028 election.

There’ll probably be a few minor controversies interspersed, but “neither side” has a clue how to fix the mess that’s been brewing for an awful long time.

The solution to pretty much every problem will come from outside government. Of course, that means it’s important to nationalize all of Elon Musk’s stuff. Along with the big tech firms that even considered trying to make the bad orange man happy.

Whatever.

If you, or especially your business, is cheering either the “success,” or mourning the “failure” of yesterday, good luck. I’ll be taking my traveler’s checks to a competing resort.

On a related note, in honor of BlueTexas, Samir summed it up well.

Categories
NoJoMo

3

Election Day

Good link back to 2020.

I’m kind of tuning it out as best I can.

Though the debt book I consumed (and I didn’t write a review; bad me) the past few weeks has quieted my worry a bit, but the problem with unfunded obligations is still very real. But that, on top of the real antisemitism floating to the top, I’m really having trouble caring.

Alan Dershowitz, a Democrat for 75 years, described why he’s out on with Dr. Drew came out forcefully against “his party” over their embrace of antisemitism. (And that I still pay attention to Dr. Drew kind of provides perspective about my age. There’s been many times where I’ve disagreed with AD, but he is a prominent civil rights attorney.)

I’ve written here, that I planned to vote for Biden in 2024 until the We-Beat-Medicare debate. Why? Because I still don’t believe there’s any politician who can fix the mess that the Boomer presidents have created. Okay, Biden wasn’t a Boomer, and his handlers were largely Millennials, who wrote pearl-clutching retrospectives about what they’d hidden from the world; see my review of Original Sin.

Is this indifference? Not really. There are still some really fucking terrible people “on both sides.” (Set aside there’s really no big difference between the sides; both OrangeManBad and JDVP would have been Democrats about twenty years ago) El-Sayed. Paxton. Vivek. The DSA House candidates. MAGA. Socialists, Big Labor, but I repeat myself, and so on.)

So, I’m out. I’ll vote against the candidates I really don’t like. And if you, or your business are big supporters of someone or something I really don’t like, please shut the fuck up about it if you want my acquaintance. Or, especially, my business.

I’m going to go visit family this afternoon, and will watch the WTF livestream tonight.

Whatever.

Categories
NoJoMo

2

This flashback is kinda relevant; same day of the week, even, I think.

Nov. 2, 2015, midnight

*It’s the first Monday of the month. Please rank the level of sucktitude on a scale of 1 to 100, then describe your plans for the day.*

The answer, of course, is eight.

Why so low?

  1. THE ROYALS WON THE WORLD SERIES
  2. What’s making my life at miserable at work isn’t here. So, there’s that.

I am very tired, as that game didn’t finish until almost 2am. yawn

Am I surprised by all this? Certainly. I didn’t think it was possible, in this world of uncapped salaries, for

a small-market team like Kansas City to put together a competetitive team.

They did.

Would the story have been different if they’d been playing in the AL East? Maybe. It’s very difficult to compete with NYC, Boston money.

Otherwise, I don’t have a lot to say today.

I’m refamiliarizing myself with “The FAR (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Acquisition_Regulation) even though it seems as none of the higher-ups give a fuck about it.

I’m going to do what’s right, not what’s expident. If you want to fire me because of that, please bring it.

I’m sure some folks in the trial law field will enjoy having me as a client…..

sigh

So there’s that.

Heh. This kind of encapsulates a couple of different things that led me to the attitude I had in yesterday’s entry.

Che’s Neighbor Willis isn’t the sort of optimism I’m aiming for, either.

Willie is a good representation of exactly what people think actually happened, and that that fictionalized past is going to return.

Regardless of what your history teacher might be pumping out, things weren’t that bad in the US.
Nobody is trying to create or recreate that fictionalized dystopia.

Where did those bad things happen? In Socialist countries. No, I’m nto talking about Denmark. I’m talking about East Germany. I’m talking about Czechoslovakia. I’m talking about Peronist Argentina. I’m talking about Allende’s Chile.

But, again, there’s clarity for me. You’re going to do what you do. I’m just not going to interact with you if you’re cheerleading things I view as negative.

Is it a bit hypocritical for me to focus so much on things like 20th century Communism similar to the way “The Left” focus on things like Colonialism? You could make that argument, certainly. But it’s still pretty fresh in my mind. I saw the glorious effects of Socialism first-hand in 1993. You noticed when you were crossing from Austria into Hungary. You saw the overall grubbiness of Eastern Europe after The Wall came down.

That stuff is still fresh. So, too, are relics from the Party of Slavery/The Klan/Segregation/The Palmer Raids/Forced Steriliation/Massive Resistance/Lee-Jackson-King Day. Socialism’s real legacy isn’t ancient history, even if it wasn’t taught in government schools. It’s a bit like how The Holocaust wasn’t taught to this Tajik in his Soviet Schools.

And I really ought to wrap this up. Time to recycle the prompt…

Please rank the level of sucktitude on a scale of 1 to 100, then describe your plans for the day.

Um. Probably at about a 20 on the sucktitude meter. I’m honestly not feeling great today. I really need to do a better job of gauging what I’m capable of. That said, it’s still amazement at how much better I feel now than I would have just a few years ago. I would have been completely useless, and scared to death about embarassing myself. Not going to go too deeply into detail; that’s for later, but I don’t know if I could have done what I did just three years ago.

As for today, I really don’t know, yet. I have a thumbnail sketch, but circumstances will dictate. And I’ll probably be able to deal with those circumstances. I don’t really have firm plans or a fixed schedule. That’s okay; I’m retired.

Categories
NoJoMo

1

So, I started in on this while I was waiting in the airport;

This is year sixteen of me writing every month in November. I started that only a few weeks after Sarah and I married Navy-style. (So at the courthouse in Norfolk, but not because I was going on cruise, and she was knocked-up…)

I think I’m settling, finally, into disability.

This condition is horrible, and I wouldn’t wish on the person in the world I dislike most, but it’s still not the horrible sentence it was when I started writing.

Things. Get. Better.

So, I’m really wondering if I can, maybe, try to bring some of that perspective into this year.

Credit goes, of course to things like Cato’s Doomsayer, Reason Magazine, Michael Malice, and Kmele Foster.

You really have to work hard to make things that bad. Even with the horrid orange blob in the Oval Office.

So, as I write and post this from inside the airplane, I hope someone reads this and is a little less-pessimistic about things.

Good things can happen this month; if you’ll let them.

I had to re-edit once I got off the plane; Intertubes quit working, and we were about to land. Go figure.

Still, on the generally-positive side of so many things at this point.

AI probably is going to make most lives better.
We’re probably not going to die of whatever disease came in on RFKJ’s car roof.

Chill the fuck out, and do something that focuses your attention on something other than what’s going to set you off.

So, yeah, turn off MSNBC^H^HOW. Turn off Instagram reels and TikTok.

What I’m going to write so far….

Nov 1 — November again, writing since 2010
Nov 2 — Royals’ 2015 World Series win; second draft: dimming your personality to fit in
Nov 3 — Election Day, linked back to 2020
Nov 4 — 2016 flashback: someone recently lost
Nov 5 — just the single word “Free-wriet-ish” so far, no topic yet
Nov 6 — 2010 flashback: feeling old, drinking, weight loss
Nov 7 — Bucket list, still not having one (2013 flashback)
Nov 8 — Defining safety, and where you feel it most
Nov 9 — Election flashback to 2004
Nov 10 — 2002 flashback: advertisers have lost it
Nov 11 — Archived 2005 entry: first day at your first job outside radio
Nov 12 — Faith essay; second draft: travel plans for the next few months
Nov 13 — Travel recap
Nov 14 — COVID flashback to 2020
Nov 15 — Halftime: life without internet and social media
Nov 16 — This year’s flu shot
Nov 17 — Signs and synchronicities lately
Nov 18 — Plans for the rest of the year
Nov 19 — Signs and synchronicities, same opening as Nov 17
Nov 20 — Childhood dream job (2016 flashback)
Nov 21 — What you’re most proud of this year
Nov 22 — Thanksgiving plans
Nov 23 — empty
Nov 24 — 1999 flashback: moving as an Army kid
Nov 25 — Christmas shopping
Nov 26 — Thanksgiving
Nov 27 — Black Friday
Nov 28 — empty
Nov 29 — Football this year
Nov 30 — Month wrap-up: organizations you’re giving to

For the empty ones, if you have suggestions, let me know.

Categories
NoJoMo Scarred Brain murmurings

R2G Saturday

I’m not going to go through exactly what I do during NoJoMo. This will be year fifteen. Is it a problem? Maybe. I do have diagnosed OCD. The writing streaks are one of the few compulsions I display.

Dunno if Justin, or anyone else are going to try to follow along. These compulsions are just that; I have been diagnosed, but when I was working they served really as a chance to keep me writing, and lay out what I needed to do for the rest of the year.

This year is different, primarily because after the previous two, I’m firmly in the mode of retirement.

Things are pretty-much squared-away. Finally.
I did what I was supposed to do, and I should be able to try to enjoy myself some. It’s about time.

And I think things will be okay, in spite of the endless efforts to place the blame for everything bad on President Trump. Again, he’s fucking awful. I never voted for him. But that doesn’t mean that Hillary, Biden, or Officer Harris would have been any better.

I don’t remember where I got the recommendation, and it wasn’t an author interview, but I got through A Fabulous Debt by Robin Wigglesworth. His example of old debt is a dam in Holland for which the note has been paying interest for nearly 500 years.

I don’t understand why you’d keep that line of credit open, even if it continually pays interest. Settle up, and move on with your life. Maybe it’s the inverse of Harry Browne’s No-One-Owes-You-Anything. I just can’t imagine living that way, even if there’s arguments for it.

I pre-pay bills, even if my financial advisors tell me to not do that. If something happens, I’m not going to be in arrears.

Maybe it’s not surprising, then, that my wife and I operate much the same way on financial matters, even if our political views continue to diverge. (Sorry, hon, I don’t think Trump is the alpha and omega when it comes the problems…., and when he’s gone they’ll still be there.)

But, buttoned-up,a and ready for the month, the holidays, and the rest of the year.

Let’s go….

Categories
Scarred Brain murmurings

Another Saturday

Awake early for more medical fun. Did I get finished? No, of course not. But it’ll happen after I get back from my trip. This time next week I’ll be fumbling around trying to make sure I have everything I need for travel.

Discussion in IRC about travel in and out of NY when the weather might be bad. The thing we’re going to is “upstate,” but I think Amtrak might be the better option, even with a direct flight from DCA to pretty much where the event is. I suspect the ride fares on the ground probably would be a little more expensive, too; leaning towards the train.

Okay, the ride on the train is a couple of hours longer. But we would be spared dealing with TSA, carefully packing bags, etc.

Other stuff — the past few days have brought more than a little comfort when it comes to the AI freakout. This morning’s piece linked in TheFP‘s morning collection kind of shines a bright spotlight on this existential fear that many in the writers’ world seem to have.

I remember someone from my past who’d refer to himself as a “code poet.” Um. Okay. The code you wrote exists to fill a purpose. Likely nobody’s ever going to read it, nor is anyone ever going to be inspired by it.

Furthermore, does it even matter if it’s gone through tools to permit compilation? Those interesting things you had in your unicode source went away completely unnoticed.

So, my thoughts on the physical act of writing aren’t really that different. Yes, the vast majority of my output comes via a QWERTY keyboard to a buffer of some sort where I refine things.

But, when it comes to the content, itself, how many different ways can you write one thought?
Does the particular manifestation really matter all that much?

If you think it does, please make the argument in support of that.

I do think there’s a lot that happens with the use of unnecessarily-flowery language.

Bob walked to the store down the street.

In his special, expensive designer shoes, Robert journeyed to the retail establishment at the end of the long city block.

I don’t get it.

However you’ve found to communicate a message really isn’t that important. The message is yours, and it likely can’t be neatly-replicated.

Maybe I can string together enough to hammer out an OWT on this.

I’m sure the very-scared will find some reason to tell me I’m wrong. But what’s new?

Categories
Scarred Brain murmurings

Bargaining

Many thoughts surrounding upcoming elections.

Yes, I did end up casting a ballot against the amendments to the Virginia Constitution. Two I was firmly against, and the third I was wavering. So, vote against all three. None would have affected my life.

There’s also been a concerted ad effort urging a vote for “yes” to all three, so more alarm bells.

I don’t know what’s going to happen in November.

I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be anything worthwhile, regardless of who claims a plurality.

After the DSA candidates’ various wins in primaries around the country, including the DC Mayoral race, I’ve been trying to figure out how to deal with these people hellbent on doing stupid things that have failed miserably in the not-too-distant past.

Last night, over on NewsNation, Elizabeth Vargas and Stossel had a special.

The kicker was the last audience member who talked about what happened in Iran in the late-70s, where there was a united effort to overthrow the Emperor.

Three years later, women were in hijabs, and Socialists had been executed.

Good job, y’all.

But, here in the US, I’ve been trying to figure out what to say to people who think the new Socialism is totally going to work this time.

“Good Luck With That” is appropriately-dismissive, but it’s kind of played out.

Okay, DSA candidate, you think government can do things better for you than the free market, understand:

  • I’m never going to respect you
  • I will probably never treat you courtesy
  • I will be silently cheering for your failure
  • I will move my assets somewhere that you can’t get your hands on them

Is that too harsh? Maybe, but I don’t really care.

Is there a way to be less of an asshole about it?
Hmm.
Oh, I’ve got an idea!

I won’t work against you if you practice what you preach, go through a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, and let the government redistribute any assets that are left after full-liquidation. That’s what you want, right? Oh, no, only for the rich!

Cool?
Okay, get started on that.

Categories
NoJoMo Scarred Brain murmurings

My Muse

Still playing around with AI tools to do analysis on this bundle of cruft I have around. Muse seems to be best at getting into WP, and seeing what’s going on.

I think I’m pretty close to being set up for November.

One of the tools was able to go through previous years’ writing, and pluck off prompts I’ve used.

Do you take things too personally?

I think it took this from 2017.

I think Sarah wrote this prompt. My feelings on it really haven’t changed all that much, honestly. My mental state about things now, however, is a lot better because my obligations are really chosen.
I do what I want, and if I don’t like what’s going on, I can just leave.
But would I? I don’t know. More likely, I’d just slink away and not participate.
It’s what I do.

But I get frustrated by things beyond my control sometimes. Like this issue with my broken tooth, which was supposed to be fixed this morning, but the replacement was wrong, so I have to wait another week.

Pfft.

But, in other news, I’m doing so well with the study tasks.
Again, riding in a chauffeured town car is nice.
Just one more blood test until I can take a few months off.
I’m ready.

Categories
Scarred Brain murmurings

OWT: Flip The Switch

A couple of things over the past few days have brilliantly illustrated why I’m not as worried about the AI apocalypse.  I started having serious doubts while listening to John C. Dvorak on No Agenda before his demise;  RIP, Buzzkill.

Last year, there were many breathless stories about how self-improving AI would soon improve things to the point that it’d be impossible to stop.  JCD’s point was that the continuation pace of improvement was impossible because of entropy;  things can’t improve forever.

But during the run-up to the holidays last year, I watched Christmas Vacation.  Clark Griswold had completely covered his Chicagoland house with lights.  He assembled the family, along with many of the house guests for the glorious lighting, plugged in the extension cords, and nothing happened. 

It took me a while to find the particular clip, but that’s it. 

The AI World-Ending kill shot won’t work because someone left the light switch in the garage in the “off” position.

After reading via audiobooks, (remember that Meghan O’Gieblyn’s excellent Will and Attention, I committed to try to use various AI tools to try to automate tedious tasks

Hey, Grok, can you add the Social Security Disability Insurance payment dates to my Google calendar? 
I can do that if you give me your birthday.
*Enters birthday*

Grok contemplated for a few seconds, and added the SSDI payment dates to my Google Calendar.  It did set the series to end in November.  I manually adjusted the end date for something far in the future.  I would probably need to check the exact age when the SSDI would go to regular SSI.  (And the chances of me living that long aren’t great, so I didn’t bother checking.)

I’ve also been trying to use tools to add my rides to and from Georgetown for this study where I’m a subject.  The provider emails attach somewhat-incomprehensible reservation PDFs.  Neither the AI tools or I can often pick out information from the PDFs, but Apple iOS does allow me to import the information to my calendar from the SMS messages.

Okay, this is cool!

Can I have AI tools schedule my WMATA MetroAccess Paratransit rides for an event on Wednesday Night?

Nope.  That didn’t work.  Let’s see if Grok can do it.

May I have your client ID?

Doesn’t work;  let me try to login manually.

My account is locked.
Dial the phone number, and they’re closed until Tuesday.
Damnit.

Let’s see if Muse can do it.

After about 25 minutes of work, it hit the same roadblock.

Shoot. 

After fumbling with this on Sunday and Monday, I came to the conclusion that, yes, I was going to have to wait until a person was sitting in the office at L’Enfant Plaza on Tuesday.

That entire process took something like twenty minutes.  Seems that my authorization had expired, and I didn’t notice it. 

The rep I finally got through to was able to reactivate my account for something like 60 days, and put me through to the reservations operator to let me schedule my trip for Wednesday night.

The outbound trip was handled by one of the local taxi companies.  They use a text-messaging system;  I was able to add the trips to my Google calendar using an iOS device.

The old time-bound and process-bound hiccups are what make it nearly impossible for AI tools to accomplish the nightmares envisioned by the AI doomsayers.

The tools, however, do allow for quicker, perhaps more-effective use of the old tools.  When I filled out the paratransit pass renewal, I didn’t need to print anything out.  I sent a PNG of my Virginia DMV ID QR code, along with digital photos of my state ID.

This, of course, is worse for humanity than me sitting in the Department of Motor Vehicles facility.

The AI tools aren’t going to kill us all.  They are going to help us fill out that weird form originally-created in 1996.

I’m skeptical, but I am okay with this.

Categories
Scarred Brain murmurings

Saturday Things

There’s a lot that went on this week, but I’m not sure how much I want to memorialize here. Closer, still, on the final disability stuff, trip to get examined (leeched), trying to figure out getting the grass in Biloxi cut while everyone was really busy preparing for the storm that ende dup hitting Lower and East Alabama (a.k.a. The Panhandle), disjointed wedding anniversary, Cowboys losing to Tampa on Thursday night.

Book

Book recommendation, something I got through this week — Meghan O’Gieblyn’s Will And Attention Long, but important, I think. I do sort of miss these longer-form works. It’s not something that lends itself to Instagram videos.

That this shift in styles is happening concurrently with the deterioration of my eyesight further complicates things.

Kind of related to my mention of Sarah Hepola’s book here, and much of the music I was listening to, the evidence is strong that I might just be a 50 year-old woman.

Cowboys Game

While I don’t like the short-clip culture, I couldn’t help but think about this watching.

Other Stuff

Still following with some interest the news about the “Cornell 7.” There’s just so many things with it that make it all so incomprehensible.

Reason/Robby Soave had good stuff, as usual. Brian McWilliams had a rather frank take on it as a frat guy. I think there was some discussion in this. Discussions of Euphoria, and how it ties into the sexual mores of GenZ.

I just can’t relate to any of it. Sex should be something private between two people. I’d not participate, and don’t think highly of those who do.

But because I don’t think anyone should be publicly-executed, I think i’ts okay. Um, no.