Category Archives: News+

19 November 2020

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The Other Shoe

The shoe that hasn’t dropped, yet. Is he just being a narcissistic asshole, or is he clawing at every possibility he can envision before becoming a private citizen again, and subject to the consequences and suits and indictments that are headed his way?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m super pleased that Biden has won. I’m super disappointed that so many, many people still voted for the incumbent, and that’s going to be a deal for a long time.

So yeah, I’m still on edge, and that’s even without pandemic 2.0, and the idiots who STILL won’t wear masks or stay the hell home. Sigh.

Wood, continued

I’ve been doing a number of small projects, along with cleanup, in the wood shop. I finally broke down and took the small (12″ x 12″ x 1″) cutting board that sees the most action in our kitchen downstairs for refurbishing. I made that a dozen years ago or so, out of hard maple. The cutting surfaces are endgrain, and it’s a really nice small board. But one of the glued joints was delaminating, and that’s neither safe nor nice in a kitchen.

I cut the board in twain, following the line of impending doom. I flattened and dressed the mating surfaces on my jointer/planer. A liberal coating of Titebond III ™, a few clamps, and a couple of days yielded a nice solid board. I tuned the joint and the cutting surfaces with a hand plane, then sanded the thing using a progression of 60, 100, 150, and 220 grit using the orbital sander. A blast of air, a wipe down, and a coating of butcher block oil, and the work’s mostly done. All I’m doing now is letting the coating cure:

Hard maple cutting board refurbished
Hard maple cutting board refurbished

Winding Down

If I don’t wind down, I’ll surely continue to get wound up. So we keep trucking along, waiting for (more) good news. Two potentially effective vaccine candidates? That’ll be good news.

Lexi, our chipuggle mutt, laying on the carpet in the sun.
Lexi the sun dog

Lexi continues to be photogenic, but she’s falling into late-fall sun dog mode – not as interested in being outside in the cold.

1 July 2018

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Half of the year is gone, and all things considered for us, things could be worse. But between the political situation and all the shitty men doing shitty men things to women, things could certainly be a lot better. Additionally, we were touched by the tragic shooting in Annapolis – Marcia and I know a couple of the Capital Gazette folks, and Wendi Winters was one, now gone. Also killed were Rob Hiaasen, Gerald Fischman, John McNamera, and Rebecca Smith. Rest in peace. Our condolences to the affected families, friends, and coworkers.

Other than that sad news, it was a productive week, fully back in the saddle at work, with 5 days regular and supporting/patching work both days this weekend. I did get the front yard mowed early on Saturday before the heat moved in. All the rest of my planned chores are also done and I had some time to relax.

At the Annapolis Shakespeare  Company, The Miser is running Tuesday evenings in the Courtyard at Reynolds Tavern on Church Circle in Annapolis, through September 25. We saw the show before we left for vacation and it was a joy. We’ll be back to see it again, for another fun date night! Opening July 13 at St John’s College in Annapolis: Love’s Labour’s Lost. High expectations for this one, and with just nine shows over three weekends, get thee to the site and buy your tickets before they’re all gone!

DoD announced no new casualties in the last week.

22 Jan 2017

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It’s a hell of a thing. But let’s be clear. I’m not really an optimist. Most days, I plan for the worst. In the end, most days I’m pleasantly surprised by how well things went. Given my imagination, really, I’m not going to actually have the worst day I can envision.

Sadly, I don’t think the President has the chops or the self-control to build a team that will give us good government. For me, this makes bad days more likely. I think it’s the absolute unpredictability of the man that is most bothersome. Well, that and the sycophants that parrot and back up whatever shiny lunatic lies pops out of his mouth. I suspect our best hope in the short term will be an adversarial press, and an active electorate.

It was awesome to watch the crowds come together yesterday for the Women’s March. I was an event chauffeur, driving Marcia and a neighbor down to the Metro early, and picking them up in the afternoon. You can (and people do) pick apart any agenda, but I’m impressed with the general direction and motivation from the Women’s March. The big take-away is to be active. Become and stay involved in politics. Watch how your local, state, and national representatives act on your behalf, and let them KNOW you’re watching. Let them know when you don’t approve, AND when you do. Both are important. Actively support the groups doing good work: the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, etc. Stay active and be ready when it’s time to go to the polls again. If you don’t like how things work, and you don’t vote … well, that’s just sad.

The man who is President won, I believe, due to electorate lethargy and apathy. These are fatal to a Democracy. In the year to come, his actions and our level of activity will distinctly influence mid-cycle elections. Our Legislative Branch will then have to shit or get off the pot. Be part of the solution, make a difference. That’s my take.

Of course, as a died-in-the-wool pessimist, I expect none of this to make a difference. And there’s still a rock out there with our name on it. But maybe not tomorrow.

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Lexi doesn't want a walk...

Lexi doesn’t want a walk…

I asked, really I did. It was an unusual Monday for the dog, because I was home all day on MLK Day. That sort of thing messes with her expectations of how life should go. I should be home for two days, then gone for most of the next five.

“Do you want to go for a walk, Lexi?”

That usually elicits an excited tail-wagging response that leads directly over to the leash. But on Monday last, the answer was clear:

“Nope. Belly scritch. Now.”

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DoD announced no new casualties in the last week.  Ciao!

Marriage, Garden

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A bare majority of a group of old people (hereafter known as the Supreme Court of the United States, AKA SCOTUS) today says that some people, who want to marry other people, but weren’t allowed to because some other, other people are less enlightened … well, the people are now allowed to marry any of the other people that they want, and the unenlightened people can get bit. Or move to someplace where only unenlightened activities are permitted. There’s still plenty of that to go around.

Anyway, happy for my happy gay friends, both those I know and those I don’t. Y’all get married if you want, and be happy, if you can. I’m super pleased about this decision, and amused by Scalia shouting at people to get off other people’s lawns.

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Garden. Joy. Just sayin’ …

First tomatoes, and more

First tomatoes, and more

We’ve been eating out of the garden for a couple of weeks now: broccoli, zucchini, and cucumbers. But the latter are getting highly productive (as you can see), and YAY the first tomatoes are out of the garden, and making us both happy. Salsa can’t be far off… Ciao!

Byte? SRSLY?

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First off, Byte is back. Yeah, SRSLY, Byte. Talk about your basic reincarnation myth, remixed about 5 times over the last 10 years. And equally fully of #FTW, Jerry’s involved. Huzzah!

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Also, Jerry’s got a column out, having finally battle his way past nearly four months of creeping crud. I just finished the editing pass and got the column posted for him within the last hour. There’s still kinks to shake out of CMR at the new hosting site, but we’ll get them licked, one way or another.

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Nothing else going on, work and such. Remind me someday – I *still* really want  to build a Solaris 11 box. Can I do everything I do here (on Linux) with that? Do I want to try? The answer is “Probably”, but it sure ain’t this week. Maybe after summer session, and before fall classes start. I can’t just wing it, because I don’t have spare hardware, and no budget for any right now.

Commercial news

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I saw a Lexus commercial accidentally while watching Mythbusters. The context is appropriate because … I’ll return to that thought. Anyway, the takeaway concept is also found on this automaker page:

Lexus vehicles, now, and certainly in the future, could be powered by a whole range of different energy sources. Lexus Hybrid Drive can be used to optimize any power source, whether it’s an internal-combustion engine like we have today or some future power source.

My initial thought after dropping a bit of anti-matter into the fuel tank is … where’d the car go? Fast, eh? Or not. And now we’re back to Mythbusters, and why my immediate reaction to that statement was so appropriate to the context. The funny part is that this was one of the less-exciting non-exploding episodes.

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Pfizer is in court to extend the patent-coverage of one of the corporation’s most lucrative drugs by several more years by claiming that it’s covered by a second patent that doesn’t expire until 2019. This would have an upward-enhancing effect on Pfizer’s revenues, but an additional (some might say “off-label”) effect of making Teva’s earnings limp along for about seven years.

I thought I had a funny joke about this topic relative to former Congressman Weiner (whose page is still up at the moment – oh, “up”, eh? There’s a connection, eh, nudge nudge, wink wink.) Something related to publicly available prior art … but any activities in the last couple of years certainly isn’t very prior.

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Time to walk the dog. I’m on call for a few extra days, for several different reasons that seemed good to someone (else) at some time in the recent past. Between that and school, I’m actually pretty whacked. I might try to get to sleep before 11 tonight. Ciao!