Horseshoe Theory

it’s Saturday, so that’s when I write.

Yesterday, I went an had MRIs following the medication switch over the summer. I really don’t know if there’s been any progression. The Keysimpta was brutal on the first half-dose, but i barely notice it now. This last one made me feel kinda lousy, but that might have been due to something else.

We we’ll see. I need to work getting the CDs sent off to my docs for review, though I did put them up on one of my VPSes so they could download.

We’ll see how that goes.

And figured out what the issue I’m seeing with one of my VPSes is. Pfft.

I hate BIND Sofa King much

But that was actually an issue with the domain registrar. Why they switched the nameserver records again is beyond me.

Hopefully it’ll get straightened out soon.

Why I’m continuing to do all of this myself is a really good question. Kind of speaks to where I am with so many things in life.

What is the value of the time that I’d spend doing these things?

I just don’t know.

At one point, I think I enjoyed this stuff. I’m not sure I do anymore.

What better could I be doing with that time? Um.

I’d probably listening to podcasts, and watching TV.

As far as what I’ve consumed lately, following the end of the NFL season.

No OP Live tonight. The Shane Gillis SNL isn’t until next week.

Kind of caught up on Normal World. With company around, I stumbled across The Big Door Prize.

And I’ve kind of lost the bubble on where I was going with this.

Listening to other coverage of a lot of the things brought up in the latest Fifth Column.

Navalny’s death probably ought to give Elon Musk more than a moment’s pause about Tucker Carlson.

Not Getting It

Follow-ups to yesterday’s entry.

I get why everyone interviewed is upset. Suicide is horrible.

But there’s something big missing from what these amazingly-knowledgeable educators absolutely are missing.

.

.

These ardent academics blamed everything they could think of for these suicides. Except for the policies they fucking set that sent people into unnatural isolation.

I really haven’t felt myself needing additional human interaction, but I’m weird. I know that. I admit that.

I can go weeks at a time without face-to-face contact with others. When I was in college, much of my time was spent by myself.

I’d have one or two breaks an hour in the middle of the night. I’d listen to the stations’ programming in monitors while I was doing my college research, and writing papers.

But I’m fucking weird. Most people can’t do that. On my nights off work, about my only interaction would be with the clerk at 7-Eleven or the diner.

Whatever. I’m comfortable with that. Most people aren’t. Most people can’t deal with just being completely without seeing others smile more than a few times per week.

This doesn’t have anything to do with the lack of minority representation among your faculty. It’s not because of systemic racism.

You did this; this is your fault.

I’m sorry if saying that bothers you, but it’s the truth. There’s people, including more than a handful of your students, who are dead directly because of what you did.

But you’ve got lots of letters after your name, so you can’t be responsible for anything bad. You’re a good person, and you were only looking out for others protecting that from a virus that probably wasn’t going to kill them, or cause significate harm.

You did this. You are responsible. Admitting your culpability is the first step in not repeating the mistakes you make. You did make them. I know I did. I admit them.

Maybe if I’d been rich, healthy enough to buy more, I’d feel absolved.

You Aren’t The Problem

I’m happy now that I didn’t give NYT money.

I listened to this yesterday.

It really bothered the hell out of me, and made me happy that I was too lazy to give them money.

The title is a teaser, but why am I really upset by this?

More tomorrow.

Back On Track

I think my jaunt to the Gulf Coast in a few weeks is the only thing on my calendar to which I’m really looking forward.

Maybe I did reword that sentence because I was thinking of something.

Kind of distracted this week with an insane work week for both me, and my wife.

Focus kind of disrupted by news from my old boss, who I’d emailed with an odd story about a radio tower being stolen in Alabamastan, about the death of the co-owner of the radio stations where I’d worked pretty much through college, and for a souple of years after.

Lisa was always very nice to me, and I’m very sad she’s gone. The first time I went back to visit after I’d left for the wild world where I’ve been for almost twenty years, she saw me in the lobby, and excitedly waved me in to her office.

How do you like your new job?!

I really like the work I’m doing. Not very happy with the company, but doing interesting work.

Her (then newly-ex) husband chimed in wryly, “They’re missin’ payroll.”

Um.

Yep.

I don’t know that I’ve got a ton here about my travails that’d follow with that company. I’m not dissatisfied that last news I had about he company president, he was living with his daughter in San Diego after his hippy wife had left him.

No, I’m not going to withdraw the aspersion about her. No shit, he actually was making business decisions based on what her medium in Sedona had instructed.

All that said, I was able to gain some knowledge while dealing with that less-than-ideal situation. Hopefully it’s served me somewhat later in my work life.

Towards the end of my time with that company, I was cashing my paycheck at their bank, then driving to my nearest credit union an hour away to deposit the cash.

Travelling on a crowded Interstate with hundreds of dollars in your pocket is more than a little uncomfortable.

But I got through it all. While I have some ill-will, none of it is directed to the radio world I left in 2005.

Listened to this during the first part of my writing.

I understand where Stockman is coming from, and generally agree with his analysis. I don’t agree that RFK Jr. is the answer.

Vote against the worst.

Looking at what’ll be on my ballot in November,

  • Biden
  • Trump
  • RFK Jr.

Cornel West might well be on the ballot. The Libertarian Party likely won’t be because of the unmitigated disaster the Mises Caucus has unleashed.

Much like I would have if I was voting in the Nevada Republican primary, I’d probably vote “none of the Above.”

I should go try and prepare some for that big football game that shall not be named.

Don’t really care who wins. I’ve felt that way this entire playoff.

Skeptical Sunday

Finishing up Things Fell Apart Season 2. I understand where he’s going with it, but I guess I see a bit of a middle way with it?

Okay, there’s overreactions, certainly.

At the same time, if you’re writing something, and you portray yourself as a “thought leader,” you have to assume that there’s some gravitas that goes along with that.

If you don’t know, or wouldn’t ever do those things, you shut the fuck up.

If you can’t help yourself, you have to repeatedly add disclaimers in and around what you say.

Maybe it’s even more important when you’re with a governmental, or quasi-governmental body.

My reaction to so many of these things lately, especially when people are calling for untested policy prescriptions, is you’ve decided you’re not going to try to convince me to do what you think would be best. You’ve snitched. You’ve called the cops. Down to the point where the cop shoots me, I want you to speak through the sequence of events.

Taking things to the bitter end state makes people really uncomfortable.

But it can eventually help. Okay, Ms. Real Estate agent, you’ve scored this house for me in a teaser interest rate. What happens eighteen months from now when I can’t make the payments after the rate’s reset?

I’m sorry I made you do math. I know you didn’t do well on that in school. To be honest, neither did I, but I got enough of it to buy a Science degree.

Of course, you don’t focus on worst-case scenario when you’re trying to make the sale. But it there’s a catastrophic result as a possibility, you have to lay that out, show mitigations against it, and show its likelihood.

*yawn*

I’m gonna go take a nap.

Late On Saturday

So it really doesn’t matter.

Work is incredibly trying at this point. Really trying to not get too caught up in asshole behavior, or, to needle the HR mafia, the equity that’s been stolen from me with new policies.

Just pace it along in with the family stuff that’s going on nearly a thousand miles away.

Kind of distracted on this Championship weekend. Only two games tomorrow. 1500, and 1830 Eastern.

Also tracking the stuff on the AI-generated photos of Taylor Swift.

So the solution is to snitch, call the cops? What can government do to fix the issue?

NOTHING

Except kill people and break stuff.

Should Daffy have killed Bugs for this?

What’s the difference?

The thing about seeing someone naked in an intimate way is different than just seeing a fake representation of someone engaged in whatever while namked.

Was I disappointed by the photos of a forty-something Belinda Carlisle in Playbo No. Were they representative of what she’d be on a routine day? Doubtful.

The chances of me actually ever seeing her naked in person are still exactly the same — zero.

B.C. did the shoot of herself willingly, and got paid for it. But let’s say she didn’t. How would throwing people in prison make the situation better?

For football tomorrow, I had this thought:

Just bouncing around ideas. There’s certainly better food in San Francisco and Ballimore, but those were what first came to mind.

Saturday Stuggle Session

Yes, I’m tapping the HR creatures’ favorite thing. Had some interesting discussions about it the comments § after one of the latest BARPod episodes.

Coming to realize that a lot of the discussion(s) surrounding what’s happening in newsrooms is that these young staffers are young people with severe cases of affluenza. They went to top-tier schools, probably many via legacy admissions policies

They work, often in concert with the similarly-backgrounded HR staff, to wreak absolute havoc.

All I do is refuse to participate.

And not consume any of their content. But I’m going to be pretty quiet about it.

Cannot concentrate. Resisting more coffee.

Following orthopedical procedures for a family member.

Turned Out The Shmoo

Wrap up in a sense.

My legs really weren’t working well yesterday morning, so forewent the talks, and just guzzled coffee (and this very strange gluten-free cranberry-orange muffin) in seating area up front. Telmnstr found a few people he knows, and Squidly1 floated in for a few minutes.

It was fluttering snow…and, as I said, I wasn’t working well physically (and I’m still not a day later), so I cancelled my short-bus ride, and grabbed a ride back to my perch inside the Beltway Swamp

We watched the couple of final things, including the closing from the sofa in the living room. My wife, who was just my girlfriend when she accompanied me to some of the early conferences, seemed to be mildly interested.

But after next January, they’re finished. Maybe someone will work up a replacement. Maybe not. Six of one, half-dozen of the other.

I am planning to go to the final. The trip is a nice respite for me, but there’s often things that leave me just shaking my damn head, sloshing around my already-scarred brain.

I’ve been really digging into heterodoxy lately. There’s certain things you’re supposed to believe, and do but few people really ever quantify whether these things are effective.

But towards the end of the closing, they gave prizes for the lock-picking competitions.

It’s kind of fitting accompaniment to this thing’s tagline. No security measure is unbreakable. That allows you to delete anything, and everything.

So you spread things around so you can reconstruct later if you want or need to.

Listening to this on and off as I write. This kinda plays into part of what I was doing at the hotel, and with the conference. Just pay the bits to grease the wheels, make your experience easier. I bet I could have navigated my suitcase to and drom the hotel room.

But I didn’t.

Why?

Because one, my body was rebelling against the strain I was putting on it, and two, paying the fee really isn’t a concern for me, but it might make the day of the recipient. What I paid to save me the pain of doing this, cost me less than fifteen minutes of my work labor.

Just pay it, and move on with your life.

That kind of relates to the Finding Freedom podcast ep. I appreciate what the guest is doing building a different social media app.

Great.

A lot of those really bad companiesTM make their money off scanning and selling your information.

Got it.

Pay ’em, and they stop doing that.

I apologize for getting really distracted here.

Shmoocon is, and was a lot of fun. I will do what I need to do to go to the last one next year.

Probably even if they make me wear a face diaper.

Shmoocon #7

I watched the last ones in “Belay It” on the stream from the hotel room. My legs just didn’t want to walk anymore.

Nothing particularly notable, unfortunately. Maybe it was general MS bleh killing my interest. Maybe it was the random hotel network dropouts.

Did make it down to try and watch the trivia contest. I didn’t;t have a pen to participate, and I couldn’t;t see the questios=ns to try to answer them.

We went to the bar for desert and more drinks. Good conversation, at least. Reminiscing about conventions of the past, and discussions of plans for the last one next year.

I think I’ll miss Shmoocon, but the whole experience is completely different for me than it was in the early days when I was coming up from Tidewater.

I have to wonder how much the mandatory masking is killing session attendances. Who knows?

Shmoocon #4

Watched this one. Well, the presentation section. They were in the Q&A at least, maybe.

I have the vaguest understanding of what he had done, and was trying to do, with regards to taking control of systems with a rogue keyboard.

Fascinating stuff to be sure, but I keep having this thing pop through my head about likelihood.

Yeah, you can do this stuff, but what’s the LOE, and what’s the probability somebody actually would do it?

When you have physical proximity to a system, can you do it within the access window?

I guess I really considered likelihood when I was younger.

I guess I did some when doing hardware integration, but for something like what was covered in the session, none of this is at all likely to happen.

As I’ve written before, cars and cooking are too-often captured metaphors, but it’s the first thing that came to mind; I’m sure you could manufacture a tire with a bulletproof sidewall, But why would you? It’s going to be heavy, and more expensive than most people whold be willing to pay for a tire.

Coming back to the keyboard, what are the chances someone would be in proximity to your PC or phone long enough to get in?

The vendors are rolling out patches that eliminate the vulnerability the speaker used. It’s a very simple fix. To a problem most people will never experience. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be fixed, of course, but why lose sleep over it??