Category: Cabin Fever 2020

As might be expected, Memorial Day here was pretty uneventful. My wife and I spent an inordinate amount of time doing paperwork; what’s new? But I did manage to plow through The Great War on Netflix.

Overall impression? I don’t know that I can give a more emphatic “meh.” It is refreshing to see that WWI has been getting more attention lately. I don’t know that there’s a film that’s really captured the horror.

I’ve written before about riding as my dad snaked us through The Somme, seeing where his grandfather had fought.

Later, in high school while running the hills (football training) near our quarters in Heidelberg, seeing the incredible number of headstones in the cemetery that read 1915-18. Wait, why are all these dates before the most important war in human history? Corporate press tells us that!

If you can’t trust the media, who can you trust?

Note that this was before Tom Brokaw’s 90s/2000s “Greatest Generation” obsession, and things like Saving Private Ryan, or the ultimate movie about WWII, Pearl Harbor. (Yes, the sarcasm is intended.)

But I had two big take-aways I scribbled down. (And I don’t know that they’d really fit an Okay With This entry…)

• The writers/producers spent an incredible amount of effort glossing over how badly Wilson screwed up so many things. I don’t know if it was intentional, but Lusitania’s sinking was really pushed to the back, though it was still listed as a civilian ship; a passenger liner. I shouldn’t be surprised that there’s no mention of why it’s a more dangerous wreck to dive, despite having sank years after Titanic in much shallower water. Why can’t people dive Lusitania? Oh, the ammo that the US had been sending the British is scattered across the seabed and could cook off at pretty much any time. They also leaned heavily on Black soldiers and their role in the US Army atop the discrimination they faced back stateside. No mention of Wilson’s resegregation of the US Government (including the military). Yes, the people featured were heroes. I understand that the focus on the contributions of the minorities is important for cinematic awards consideration, but I do wonder if it was more than a little over the top. If you consider it too long, you reach a real indictment of what Hollywood’s become in the past twenty or so years. I don’t recall seeing things about LGBTQ, and wonder if that might push this out of cinematic awards consideration. They did touch on some of the Communist stuff following the war, but omit talking about things like the Palmer Raids. There really isn’t any discussion about how authoritarian Wilson and his allies were. Have I gone full Glenn Beck with my dislike of him? Hardly. That said, the more I see, the more I notice “the left” trying to gloss over what he did. Who was a bigger enemy of freedom? Donald Trump or A. Mitchell Palmer?
• Along those lines, they spoke glowingly of The League of Nations, and what it would have brought. The Treaty of Versailles was great had it been followed, there wouldn’t have been a World War II. No mention of how the US Senate didn’t ratify the treaty, and that the US remained at war with The Triple Entente (Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Germany) until Harding was President in the 1920s. What was actually finished and ratified after the US failed to support was far, far, far more extreme than what the US rejected. The audacity is rivaled by what the Democrats did here in Virginia after their 2025 win.

Governor Langley’s actions won’t be as detrimental, but they are comparably reckless.

So final take on the documentary? i didn’t give it a “thumbs down,” but it’s one of the few things I’ve seen that didn’t even warrant a lukewarm endorsement.

Do I make bits of this an OWT entry? Don’t know. I probably should. I’m cramming my brain enough with it, but I really don’t know if I have anything that anyone will care aobut hearing. But that’s okay; everything gets deleted, eventually. Including my scatterbrained missives.

The most recent “primo” episode of Blocked and Reported was about people who’d fallen in love with chatbots.

In the discussion, a thought occurrent to me — why not use your favorite AI tool to scrape someone’s online presence to create a Christmas list? I’m notoriously difficult to buy for; if I want something I buy it.

I first tried to use Grok to do it first. It did read through my recent posts, and really thinks I need Detroit Lions gear. (Something I wrote about this morning…)

It also offered a Perplexity subscription, which is something I plan to buy once I finally have money coming in again. I think I’d said somewhere that that’s on my “to buy” list for the future. (And is my preferred AI tool at this point.)

I’m curious about how this can be used for others…..

Feeling a bit like Dante from Clerks today.

There are problems left and right, and I wasn’t even supposed to be here!

One of the downsides of being fully-remote, I guess.

At the same time, it’s really nothing new for me. Since I started in radio in 1998, with a few exceptions, I’ve largely been working jobs that require me to at least be available 24×7.

Whatever. I try to get things done, and care about making sure it is. Perhaps that’s a flaw in my personality.

I did take a nap in the middle of the day. Strange dream, there.

But today’s the last day of the challenge, so I can not look tomorrow; that’s a good thing.

Today’s prompt is about letter-writing. They want me to write a letter to a friend or family member.

No, if I was to write something, it’d be to a few folks who were supervisors during my lean years.

I’d started down a whole thing, trying to forgive, asking for forgiveness, myself, but, no, I’m not going to do that. I was treated horribly, and I reacted badly to that. Why should I write apologies?

Instead, perhaps I should just bits of notes to some of those who are to blame.

Dear M.,

There’s really not a lot I have to say. I hope you’re physically-well, and the same for your throng of kids. I also hope that you can look at yourself in the mirror as you straighten your tie against your off-colored collar. You know who else insisted in dressing like that?

Dear D&T,

I really do apologize. I was a mess, and that was largely due to some of the things that were going on with my health. It’s not easy doing work that’s not really your forte, while trying to get a wife through college, and dealing with a body that’s completely going crazy. How you handled dispatching me is still a bit of a sore subject, but I kind of understand, I guess. You did do the wrong thing by not bringing me on full-time after I’d done what I’d agreed to od. I understand that that might have been out of your control, but, still, paying for all of my insurances with after-tax dollars, as well as just getting paid less when everyone else was on vacation. Yes, I got time off, but I just got less money.

Dear D.,

I did what I could, but there’s only so many miracles I could have worked iwth the tools provided. I told you how I could get things done, but you were unwiling to make any changes. I hope your agricultural product sales are going well; it’s the sort fo work to which you are suited.

Dear L., et. al.

I hope you’re doing well selling streaming devices you hack so you can get HBO Now trials forever. Those sorts of skills are worht more than the ten bucks a month the services cost. For those of up here, well, come at me. No, you’re not brave enough to punch a disabled guy. I know you really want to do that. I get it.

---

So, yeah, there’s a lot negative I could say, but I’m tired of trying to piece it all together. It does give me an idea of who I’d actually speak to, at least.

Put together the most attractive charcuterie board possible, but you can only use foods you already have in your fridge and cupboard. 

For a variety of reasons, I really don’t have the ability to do that. One of my low-carb frequent snacks lately, however, has been these cheese sticks wrapped in various types of cured meats.

If I had the ability to go out to a brassiere, or a grocery store, I might consume such a thing more often.

I do need to start through some of this wine I have sitting around. So fine meats, cheese, and wine? Yes, I’d like to do that. Maybe I’ll find some time.

Today I’m fighting with things that used to annoy me, and have largely been automated on modern platforms.

I’m very happy Let’s Encrypt is around.

I also listened to a followup on what I was bitching about on one of the entries last week. Someone else listening had noted the same thing I did; a point so emphatically made was untrue by the time most people got the opportunity to listen.

No, you can’t have one trusted source. Even if Chuck Todd says you can. Even if the president says you can. You have to take information from various sources, and arrive at your own conclusions. You also need to remember that constant information isn’t distressing to all people.

Speaking as someone who earned money doing this in a previous part of life, nobody really gets upset if you give the air temperature several times an hour. That additional information doesn’t really cause stress; people are accustomed to it.

I did listen to him today, and I give credit that he came out and admitted what I noticed — that his information so earnestly provided, was overcome by events in the few hours the podcast had been out.

As I say with the tagline for this site, everything gets deleted, eventually. The same goes for a perfectly-tailored news narrative. We have always been at war with Oceana.

Today’s chllenge: Clean out something/somewhere in your house or fix something you have been putting off fixing. Post on the chat wall – what did you do today?

My question on the message board was something along the lines of how do you take a picture of GNU Tar? Well, actually, the one on this Mac is BSD Tar, but….

This weekend, however, was spent largely playing around with how to pay my protection racket coverage that’ll allow me to keep working in government if I’m able. An anagram of this particular organization is “potamic.”

To that end, the short week after Memorial Day I’m taking off to sit and watch shit I can count as CEUs. I have an ungodly amount of leave I need to burn, anyway.

They did actually post that there’s no challenges on the weekend, so I won’t be looking tomorrow, at least.

Given that there won’t be another weekend in the challenge, a day without checking probably isn’t a bad thing.

So, what’s up. Got my new iPhone SE 2020. Let’s see how long the battery on this one lasts. My old iPhone 7 was only good for probably like an hour with a podcast playing.

*looks away to watch video on the Saints’ draft pick last night*

I was distracted by the HRGeeks video chat last night.

Maybe I’ll find motivation to watch the last four rounds today, but I doubt it.

I’ve been on my boycott-all-things-{Facebook, Amazon, Google} kick lately, so I ordered a webcam from a site I used to use for pretty much all of my hardware needs. (And I guess software, too, if you consider the boxed copy of Windows Velvista I bought for a gaming PC I built in probably 2007)

Turns out it was a third-party seller. In Hong Kong. They set up the USPS shipping label when they’d sent it out of their warehouse, and on to the boat to the US. I guess it’s been sitting in customs jail in Los Angeles for about ten days now. Pfft. If it was more expensive, I’d cancel the order, and dispute the charges on my credit card. But it was like nineteen bucks total with shipping. Hat-tip to Harry Browne.

(The basic idea is that you set a threshold for arguing about price differences. His threshold, when the book was written in something like 1970, I think was a hundred bucks. When I first read the book, a hundred bucks was a big deal to me, so I set my bar much lower. Even when I was completely broke in radio, I think my threshold was $20. I should probably reassess that limit, but, regardless, the price of the webcam was less…)

And, because I lost focus on that passage, I found this address, and am distracted. Oops.

Today’s challenge: Did you know there are health benefits of origami? Why do people fold paper into little animal shapes? For most, it is because it’s fun and it looks nice. But for others, it is a way to relax; a way to let the day’s tension melt away. Today, pick an origami project and send a picture of your completed project to

Um? Another one in which I’ll not participate. I wasn’t that good at things that required patience or manual dexterity even before the MS really kicked in.

That also explains the radio my mother wants me to figure out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y4lk-sR66o

Mine has all sorts of issues with just the radio/amp. The turntable spins, but not anywhere near its rated speed (78 RPM, I’m guessing).

I’d replaced the one tube in it that was blown, but I still couldn’t really get audio out of it. *shrug*

I also don’t have a soldering iron. Or a place to work on it. Or a working multimeter. Or…

If there’s someone who’d like to hack on it, I’d pay for gas to/from suburban Bad Newz, and parts in exchange for bringing it up here to the bank of the swamp.

Today’s prompt: Reconnecting with nature has been shown to be beneficial for easing some of the symptoms of depression. The very act of being in nature promotes mindfulness and gratitude. The inherent ‘peace and quiet’ of natural environments can help to clear your mind of unnecessary worries and reduce feelings of anger and tension. Today, go for a walk in nature, if weather permits. If it’s raining, open the windows for a bit and listen to the rain and practice some meditations techniques you learned the other day.

Yeah, I’m not doing this one. Doing the planking challenge yesterday was tough, but walking across the apartment is tough enough. I’m not sure where my boots are. Maybe I could meditate on that, and remember where I put them.

So, challenge failed.

Listening to Vladimir Zelenko on Adam Corolla talking about his experiences with the malaria drugs w/ COVID-19. Snopes says Unproven. Yes, so are you, Snopes. So are you. Blessed Sister Rachel on MSNBC would say they’re 100% correct. Maybe one of the hospital corpsmen could wave to her on the way out of NYC.

So. What else?

Had a revelation last night looking at stuff with the latest bailout bill. Panic! Big banks are getting loads of taxpayer (well, future taxpayer, since they’re just inventing money at this point….) funds to big banks, and other big corporations.

The government is causing this problem as its reaction to a public emergency. But, ultimately, the proximate responsibility is the governments’.

Still, in the case of the oh-so-evil BIG BANKS, for every piece of paper they have that’s going bad, they charge interest partially to address the risk of making the loan.

I get the George Bailey speech about where the money is, that it’s not all in the bank. Got it. But this isn’t an issue with fractional-reserve banking. This is about risky loans made willingly. Perhaps some of them were at the behest of government, sure, but, ultimately, the banks chose to make those loans.

Let Them Fail.

I’m sorry that people who had nothing to do with it, aside from entrusting these reckless banks with their money, might get hurt.

But that’s what the FDIC and NCUA are there to protect against. If you’re foolish enough to have more than the limit deposited, that’s on you. I don’t care about Karen, the perky mortgage broker. I don’t care about Bill the branch manager.

You two could have stopped this. You chose not to. Yes, something bad’s happened, perhaps exacerbated by government action, but it doesn’t change the fact that you chose this.

Let Them Fail.

Yes, it’s gonna hurt. But without failure, they’re just going to prop things up, and reinflate the bubbles like they did towards the end of the last decade.

Let Them Fail.

And never reemerge in their former form.

Karen deserves to lose. And saying that really isn’t sexist unless you want it to be.