ROLEY

Author: Kris Roley

  • VB Convention Center Abstract

    black and white photo of the VB Convention Center glass front, camera tilted up towards the roof.

    Taken with iPhone 12, 26mm/1.6

  • Roley Podcast: Week Ending 6/25/2023

    Man On An Island, So That Happened, Stupid People are Stupid, and I don’t want to hear about the tip. #podcast #wfh #biden #boebert #gop #russia #kendrakingsbury #kentchristmas #mileswalker #cagematch #zuckerberg #musk

  • Man On An Island

    I want to take a second to talk about my day job.  Sort of.  I’m not going into a great amount of detail about what I do, but I’m going to talk about where I do it.  The job I have is a work-from-home job.  I started working for this company in August of 2021, and I’m very happy with where I’ve ended up.   I’m making the money I was making before the pandemic, the bills are getting paid, and I have nothing to complain about.   

    Almost. 

    I want to talk to you about something I’ll call “Man on an Island Syndrome”, and the more and more I think about it, the more I think this is the source of the deep blue funk I’ve been in.  If you work from home, it’s very easy to get into a rut.  You sit on your ass in the office, you sit on your ass on the couch, you sleep, you eat, you gain 15 pounds, you get lethargic and don’t want to do anything, and then you get depressed, and when I say you I mean me all GD day.  

    You, a human being who is hopefully blessed with two brain cells that fire in succession and a modicum of common sense, may know this to be true, and I am happy to tell you that you are right.   However, there have been times in my life when I didn’t HAVE two brain cells that fire and succession or even a quark of common sense, and THIS has been one of those times.   How do I know this?  Because on Monday I got the hell out of the house, drove up the Eastern Shore to Ocean City, cruised the Coastal Highway, and made a POV video of that drive for YouTube, and I felt amazing.   What this means is that I’m a creature of habit, and when I fall into a routine that gets comfortable it doesn’t mean it’s healthy.   Just the opposite.   I’ve been an advocate for the Work From Home Lifestyle as soon as it was established that productivity didn’t suffer as a result, contrary to what the PTB wanted to tell you.  I still believe it.   However, I can see a benefit to the hybrid setup.  3 days home two days office, for example.  There’s a need to get out of the house and deal with people closely every day, and I haven’t had to do that.  

    The other thing that I’ve mentioned before is the vortex of suck you get drawn into when you have the self-awareness that you’re not ok but not the motivation to take care of yourself.  In my case, it’s the need to make sure everyone else around me is ok and ignore my problem.  I’m very, VERY good at that until it’s unavoidable.  For me, that means a day to myself to rest, to reflect, to reconnect with that part of me that wants to do stuff.    I used to be good about taking what some of you would call a ‘mental health day’ every couple of months or so just to recharge the battery.  I haven’t done that in a long time, and I need to get back to that.   

    I don’t know if there’s a takeaway here other than to say Hi, it’s me, I’m the bad example, it’s me.   Take the time you’re given to take care of yourself, don’t stay cooped up in your damn house all day every day.  At the very least go do something you think you like to do.  The act of doing, of creating, or just going…you verb however you verb, but if you’re in my situation you might find that you feel better.   

  • Wednesday, March 1st, 2023

    • I’ve lived here in Virginia Beach for decades.  It’s as much my home as anywhere else I’ve lived.   I love this place, but there are some uncomfortable truths about living here that some of you in other places may not know, or you might be aware of one or two things. First, this town is Red.  Very Red.  You can’t be AOC and run for office here.  Elaine Luria voted for Scott Taylor in the election before she ran against him.  Also, they tend to get their way a lot.  We had a referendum about whether or not to extend a light rail system from Norfolk into Virginia Beach.  That referendum passed.  Until the City Treasurer decided he wanted a do over because he didn’t get his way.  The second referendum failed, and now there’s no light rail in Virginia Beach.   Second, If you’re not a fan of the military, this is not the place you want to live.  I would argue that we have the highest concentration of military personnel here than anywhere in the world.  Politics is going to cater to the military here in one form or another.  Third, because of the number of military folks here, folks from the Government like to come here to use our fair city as a backdrop.  I’m pretty sure that every President since Bill Clinton has come here for something, and I’d bet that Reagan and Daddy Bush has been here as well when they were in office.  Every one of them would have traveled by motorcade from the plane to wherever they were going, and each time they have had to close down at least one of the major arteries here.   But you would think from reading Virginia Beach as a trending topic on Twitter yesterday that this has never happened before, and I’m here to tell you that memories are conveniently short.  At the very least, they’re color coded.
      • One Twitter troll who identified as MAGA on his bio responded to my take on this by saying “He’s not a president”.  I’d like to be clear on this:  I did not like Donald Trump.  Didn’t care for Hillary either, but I held my nose and voted for her because I did not feel like opening the Seventh Seal of the Apocalypse.  As much as I hate the fact that Trump won, here’s the deal: He won.  As did Obama, W, Clinton, HW, Reagan, and so on.  Trump was elected President.  Anyone with a shred of fairness and logic about them has to acknowledge that.   See, there’s an objective reality and then there’s the cultish delusion that the MAGA folk have fever-dreamed their way into, and you can wish really hard that it isn’t so, but Biden won the election, just like every other President that’s been elected.  Just because you don’t like the guy doesn’t mean shit.  Flip it around and tell me what the MAGA folk would say if I said “Trump isn’t MY President!”  They’d say something along the lines of “Facts don’t care about your feelings, soy boy.”   I promise you, the sentiment is mutual.  I just happen to acknowledge reality, snowflake. There are two years left on the clock, minimum.  If you want to get rid of Biden, the answer is simple:  Run someone better.  I don’t think that will be Trump, though.  I suspect he will be otherwise engaged or barred from running.
      • Finally, all the clearly Republican folks on Twitter bitching about the traffic today…if only there was alternate transportation, like, say, light rail…
    • Someone on my team made a bot to perform a function, and decided to name it Hubert. Amazingly, I found a GIF in Teams of Hubert Humphrey.  I was shocked.  I mentioned that I’ve had Humphrey on the brain lately because I’ve been watching the CBS coverage of the 1968 DNC from Chicago.   My boss implored me to get a life or two.  I hadn’t thought of an interest like that as being all that indicative of needing to get a life, but I suppose it isn’t a common interest?  I like watching news coverage of historical events.  I’m trying to curate a few playlists on my YouTube Page of those things, so jump over there and check it out as I grow it.
    • Another thing to file under Memories are short:  MTG got the vapors when someone decided to get all up in her grill at a restaraunt: “I was attacked in a restaurant tonight by an insane women and screamed at by her adult son. They had no respect for the restaurant or the staff or the other people dining or people like me who simply have different political views. They are self righteous, insane, and completely out of control. I was sitting at my table, working with my staff, and never even noticed these people until they turned into demons. People used to respect others even if they had different views. But not anymore. Our country is gone.”  This woman has harassed David Hogg, AOC, and at the very least hung up a transphobic sign on her door directly across from a Rep with a Transgender child.  You’ve shown who you are, and you’d think when someone gives you a little of that same medicine, a person capable of self-reflection might pause and reconsider some things.  I’m guessing you’re not that person, Marjorie.   It’s ok.  I used to be the same way, and it’s easy to let that all-ego no heart or brains trick you into thinking that you did nothing wrong and that you’re being picked on.  You’re not being picked on. You’re getting exactly what you deserve.  One thing I learned the hard way is that if you don’t take the time to reflect and change your heart and mind, is that when karma comes along and does that for you it’s not a pleasant experience.  Not at all.
    • Semi-serious question for the White House Press Office:  What is stopping you from yanking FOX News’ credentials?  After yesterday’s revelations, they clearly don’t deserve them.  Seriously, square up and yank those passes, be ready with the receipts, and don’t cave in.  Not the same level, but when Gizmodo ‘found’ the iPhone 4 at a bar and leaked it, Steve Jobs barred them from Apple Events for years.  I always used to tell people on Beach Mac that you could go to all the other tech sites to get the news, or you could go to Gizmodo to get what someone else told them about the news.  Let Fox be the new Gizmodo.   Let ’em be in exile for the rest of the time Biden’s in office, or Harris for that matter if she comes after.  Sure enough a Republican will restore their access. But let them cry about how long that will be.  I think that would be perfect.
    • Remember, this is a Patreon Podcast, as are all the poddlements from Tuesday through Friday.  Go to my Patreon to subscribe, and thanks.

  • Friday, February 24th, 2023

    • I had what I think is a meaningful exchange with a friend on the Birdsite; they were wondering if a small camera like a Canon G7X is worth it when we all have cameras in our pockets.  Putting aside the old saying that the best camera is the one you have with you, I would say that if you’re not getting paid for your work, your phone camera is often better than an SLR any day of the week.  Plus, and this is by no means necessary, Moment makes a case and lenses for your phone.  I generally shoot videos with a CPL and an ND 32 filter attached.  I have a telephoto and wide-angle lens, but I rarely need to use them.  Also, while I have a DJI Osmo Gimbal, I rarely use that.  If I’m shooting a video, I use my mini tripod as a handle with a phone clamp.  If I’m shooting photography, I don’t need anything else. But, again, I’m not a professional, and what works for me may not work for you.
    • My SLR has taken up residence in my studio in a locked-down position, and I’ve just bought a teleprompter system that uses my iPad for the scripts.  We used something similar when I worked at Canon, but I was in the market for something that didn’t cost an arm and a leg.  Next up, lav mics.  I might still have one somewhere; I’ll need to dig around and test it. Finally, perfect world, I want a boom mike on a stand.
    • While caring for the wife, I give a moment of praise for the ability to get groceries delivered and the gig workers who bust their asses to deliver them.  I did it for a while, so I know the wear and tear they put on themselves and their cars.  I also know what a treasure it is to have those 2-3 hours back so I can do other things.  If you use a similar service, please take the time to thank them and tip them as well as you can.
    • A handy tip for those who feel compelled to pick the low-hanging fruit tweets of some of our more colorful wingnuts:  Don’t.  You’re being baited, and too many of us take the bait.  More engagement boosts it in the algorithm.  They cry about being shadowbanned when they don’t get the engagement they think they deserve.  With Elon being Elon, now is the perfect time to follow the screenshot method.  Screenshot the post, crop it, post that picture with your response, and do not tag the OP.  Let them cry to Elon.  Hell, let them cry, period.  We do not have to engage these people.  We can point and laugh at them while they melt down, though.

  • Thursday, February 23rd, 2023

    A reminder that these new posts are also in podcast form, over on my Patreon Page
    • I think I may have hit upon one of the reasons I’m having the issues I’m having: Too many inputs. Or, more specifically, too many unwanted inputs. It may be time for me to go be quiet myself for a little while, and figure out how to cut these unwanted issues, or mitigate them.
    • I noticed today that the phrase “The Mask Mandates Did Nothing”.  Bret Stephens wrote a column in the New York Cage Liner.  This is the same guy who opined that climate change is mass neurosis and claimed that climate science had been discredited, so let’s make sure we know what kind of idiot we’re talking about.  I don’t often speak directly to the redhats, but let me make an exception in this case.  Yes, morons, I know that a lot of you made it all the way through a once in a lifetime pandemic without getting vaccinated or wearing a mask.  I also know that you feel really good about that.  Maybe you should.  I would also feel great about not taking a single precaution to protect myself and not dying.  A better word to use would be relieved, but let’s not get confused because you know what’s going to happen to that once in a lifetime pandemic because you feel no obligation to anyone around you?  It will become a twice or maybe even thrice in a lifetime pandemic.  We’ll get a more deadly mutuation that we don’t yet have protection for, or we’ll get some new novel disease we haven’t thought of yet.  When we do, you’ll stay true to your cult.  I invite you to, because Russian Roulette is not an infinite game.   What boggles my mind is the number of pastors and radio talk show hosts in the last three years that beat their chests and shouted at the top of their lungs until they had a tube down their throat and begged for your prayers with their last dying raggedy breaths.   But what we’re not gonna do is gaslight people by saying mask mandates didn’t work when a large and very stupid portion of the population kept shouting “MUH FREEDOM” and crying “MASK HURT MUH FACE” at the same time, or just lying about religious objections (I know one person who just out and out lied)  or underlying medical conditions (I was behind one person straight up RUNNING past me into a Walmart and when asked to put on a mask by the greeter said “I have asthma” as they ran right by) , and then say “MASKS NO WORK, HA HA STUPID LIBTARDS”.
    • Would someone who cares about this person please tell her to shut the fuck up?
    • Do you remember about a year ago when Ron DeSantis got butthurt over Disney saying they were suspending political donations over the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill, and abolished the Reedy Creek Improvement District, accidentally setting in motion a transfer of the 1.2 Billion dollars in bond debt to the taxpayers in the counties where Disney World resides?  Well, Sour Puss wants to be President, so he’s claiming victory while backpedaling like a motherfucker in defeat. He’s about to sign a bill that renames the district, gives him the power to name the board, and leaves the financial arrangement alone.  So, no new taxes for the residents of Orange or Osceola Counties.  If I’m a guy who doesn’t want Ron DeSantis to be President, I’m running ads about about how the butt-hurt got in the way of thinking things all the way through.  Seems to me that’s something I’d want in a President and his administration.  Knee jerk revenge-oriented politics is dangerous, and that’s the part that worries me more than anything.  I don’t want that guy anywhere near the football.  I bet there’s ketchup on the walls at his place as well.
    • Apple Fanboi news: Apple is close to the holy fucking medical grail: A continuous non invasive blood glucose monitor on the Apple Watch. The methodology already exists. For example, the Freestyle Libre is a sensor on the back of your arm that monitors a related fluid. The watch would do the same thing, but with sensors on the bottom of the watch. Nothing breaks the skin. As a diabetic, I can’t stress how huge that would be if they nail this. I don’t know of any other watch that is doing this right now, feel free to correct me. This one is personal, I would buy this immediately. Apple Watch is 300-400 dollars? Drop in the bucket compared to meters, strips…I probably spend that in supplies right now EASY. This would make life so much easier for people. I wonder what the ROI for health insurance companies to provide an Apple Watch for a co-pay of 75 to 100 dollars? Would that save the company money in other areas? Would it lower our co-pays or premiums? Would we need to consent to sharing that information? Probably, but I’m curious about the risk/reward ratio for this.
    • Wave a magic wand, and cable news is gone tomorrow. The infotainment model of news across the board as a format is gone. What replaces it?

  • Wednesday, February 22, 2023

    • First day back to work after the holiday, which is weird.  Since I work for a gubmint-related thing now, I get gubmint-related holidays off.  This is one of the most un-call center-like things about this job.  Most places like that give a minimal amount of holidays, and in some cases, you work them on a volunteer or round-robin kind of thing.  I worked last Christmas, may I have this Christmas off?  No?  Shit.   (This actually happened.)  When I got married, the place I worked wouldn’t approve the actual DAY of my wedding off, but approved the WEEK of my wedding.  That is how the Week of Fun Started.  Looks like for the 3rd time in 29 years we’ll have to put off the Week of Fun again this year.  The way our vacation allotment shakes out is that I get the full amount in September of every year, which makes it a challenge for the following July.  Since Kimmers didn’t start her job until November, she doesn’t have PTO.  For the year.  Which is also weird.  I’d have thought they’d pro-rate, but it doesn’t appear so.  Also strange because she was just in the hospital for a week, so that’s fun.  That’s enough bitching for how, let’s navigate to the meat.
    • In a piece of news I will file under “I want off this ride”, let me pose a question to you:  If the principal of your elementary school leaves his gun in a bathroom stall, and a third-grader finds it and reports it to his teacher, what is the correct thing for that teacher to do?  Clearly, It’s sending another third-grader to the bathroom to check if it’s a real gun. What–and I can’t stress this highly enough–THE FUCK.
    • Britney Griner signed a one-year contract with the Phoenix Mercury, making it her 10th season with the team.  Of course, she missed last year because of her detention in Russia.  Now, I’m not a big basketball fan, (note: watch this space for the day they announce the Sonics are coming back), but before today I had not seen a news story mention why she played in Russia to begin with.  The NPR article I linked here says that WNBA athletes often play overseas in the off-season to supplement their income because of gender pay inequalities with their NBA counterparts.  Now, admittedly, this may be a different situation from the USA Women’s soccer team which has carried the load for US Soccer while the men have done fuck-all, but if the pay difference can be argued as a safety concern?  “Hey, if y’all would pay me I wouldn’t have to go anywhere else.”  I’m not the brightest bulb on the tree, but that would be my argument next time salary arbitration comes up.  Does the WNBA even HAVE a player’s union?  (They do.)
    • In the next town over, Chesapeake, BM Williams Elementary School went into lockdown and was dismissed early because they received a bomb threat email accusing them of ‘devil worship’.  BM Willams is the school you may have heard about in the news because they have the After School Satan Club.  The email accuses a Chesapeake school board member, the Chesapeake schools superintendent and the organizer of the After School Satan Club of ‘promoting devil worship and unIslamic values.’   Without evidence to the contrary, the letter implies the writer of the email is Muslim.  I don’t believe it for a second, but I’ll be willing to admit it if I’m wrong. However, let’s be clear about what we’re dealing with here.  This is a person who saw the word Satan and didn’t look beyond the paint.  I’m not a member of The Satanic Temple, but I know that’s there’s a big difference between them and Anton LeVay’s Church of Satan.  To begin with, The Satanic Temple doesn’t actually believe in Satan.  They don’t worship Satan.  They use the imagery to troll evangelical extremists.  They use satire to get under the skin of people.  They’re activists that preach—if you’ll pardon the expression—equality, social justice, and to point out religious hypocrisy.   They’re all about personal autonomy, curiosity, pragmatic skepticism.   The after school program is an answer to the Good News Club, a Christian after school program.  It doesn’t try to ‘convert’ kids, it teaches “about rationalism and understanding the world around us.”  in other words, how to make sense of the world using critical thinking skills and natural curiosity.  Questioning everything.   That’s a good thing in my opinion.  In fact, the only group of people I can think of that wouldn’t think that’s a good idea are folks more interested in indoctrinating their kids.
    • Lastly, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Gonzalez v Google today, this is the first of two cases regarding the Internet and Section 230.  I’ll have a deeper take on it in the coming days, but here’s the link if you’d like to hear it.

  • Tuesday, February 21st, 2023

    Has anyone else experienced the following:  You’ve been stressed out past your limit so much for so long that you stop holding back about things?  That’s where I’m at right now.   Whether that’s good for my mental health–or anyone else’s–is up for debate.  Film at 11, as they say.

    • RIP to Richard Belzer, most likely the first comedian I ever saw on TV and knew what he was.  A brilliant comedian.  The character of John Munch will have him on TV from now until the heat death of the Universe because SVU is playing on TV somewhere on the planet.  I heard yesterday that he took the settlement money when Hulk Hogan dropped him and bought a house in France that he named Chez Hogan.  I don’t know if that’s true, but that sounds like him.  And, of course, let’s never forget his brief moment of MTV stardom.

    • MTG posted this tweet this morning (it’s there as I type it, card subject to change) where she says:

      “We need a national divorce. We need to separate into red states and blue states and shrink the federal government. Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”


      Honestly, I’m warming up to this idea, but not for the reasons she would like.  It would appear that the red states are more dependent on Federal Aid than the Blue states, which generally have a higher income and GDP.  The Blue states pay more taxes, and the Red states appear to be the–to be generous–slightly larger beneficiary of those taxes. But, of course, this ‘national divorce’ will never happen.  She knows that.  This is just red meat for the ignorant.  Her citizens will expect the same services they’re getting today with a fraction of the tax base.  You have to make up for that somehow.  Someone should ask her how she plans to….oh, wait.  Right.  What plan, right?


    • MTG Related: Could someone please tell her that giving access of the 1/6 tapes to Tucker Carlson is not the same as releasing the tapes?  If there are 41,000 hours of footage, you can bet Tucker is going to release about 30 seconds of some guy from Dubuque taking a leak in the Bushes and claim it was Antifa, so TOTAL EXONERATION.  Of course all that footage will NEVER be made public, but that’s ok.  We have C-Span.
    • To get back into photography, I’ve signed up for a newsletter from Digital Photography School.  This week’s challenge appears to be about using lines in your images.  I received a beginner’s guide to street photography for signing up for their newsletter.  I was today years old when I realized one of the best tips about street photography is to find a place you like aesthetically and JUST FUCKING WAIT THERE.  I’m the Goofus walking around with a camera making everyone uncomfortable.  Plus, the last time I went out shooting street photography, I had my Canon T5i.  My iPhone 12 camera with the Moment Gear is much more suited to this purpose.  So, I think I have two things to work out this week.  Let’s see how it goes.
        • Photography related:  I see that Canon is releasing the R50, which seems to me to be the entry level mirrorless camera.  This is clearly meant to be replacing the M50; the M Line was Canon’s first excursion into Mirrorless cameras and after a while it was clear that Canon wasn’t going to devote more time to it.  A fine camera, but a limited amount of glass.  The R50 along with an 18-45mm and 55-210mm lens is out for pre-order for 1029.00, and I have to tell you I’m wanting this one.  There is an adapter for my EF Lenses, so there’s a way to keep my current glass involved.  My more professional friends might laugh at wanting just the entry level camera.  I don’t need more than that. I’m not a pro, but I do want a new camera.  My T5i was out of date when I bought it at a pawn shop with two lenses for 300 bucks.  I’ve held off on getting a new camera until Canon made an ‘affordable’ replacement they were going to stand behind, and this R50 is that camera.
    • Jimmy Carter is entering hospice care, and the amount of tributes he’s receiving for the life he’s led post-Presidency is nice to see.  Honestly, he wasn’t the greatest President, but he’ll be leaving this Earth knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt that he wasn’t the worst.  I stand by my belief that Carter freed the Iranian Hostages in the hours before Reagan’s Inauguration, and Ronald Reagan got credit for it, and I hope in the coming weeks the tributes make that abundantly clear.  Of course, there will be the vultures, you’ll see them come out of the woodwork the moment the announcement is made.  I suppose I’d ask them how they felt when someone spoke ill of Reagan when he died, but they’ll never answer that question as long as the white hot hatred of Carter/Clinton/Fonda/Ted Kennedy fills them with impotent rage.   That Venn Diagram is the most perfect of circles, you can be assured of that.
    • The human equivalent of the slime you scrape from a hull under the water line James O’Keefe has resigned from Project Veritas.  No doubt he’ll find another grift, they always do.  On the other hand, maybe he’ll end up doing dinner theater in Branson. Kind of a coin flip, truthfully.
    • At last, the true power of AI: Let it decide who gets laid off.  You know this is how we get Friend Computer, right? Please report to the Food Vats for…uh…Reassignment.
    • Lastly, I’m starting a little experiment.  This post is also a Podcast on my Patreon Page.  It’s got what you see here, plus a little more in the way of my flavor of crazy because it’s me.  I’m making every Monday Patreon show public so it can be shared and promoted.  Feel free to check it out, share and subscribe.  Thank you.

  • Sunday, February 19th, 2023

    Welcome back. That’s more for me than it is for you.

    • I haven’t had as much time for blogging–or anything else– as I have for other things that require my time. Specifically, in the past little while, my cat died, my wife’s parrot died, and my wife almost died. So, I’ve been busy. I haven’t been well, but I appear to be returning OK. It’s incredible what having access to the meds you need to be a functional human being will do for you. It would appear that my mental situation was directly tied to my lack of access to those medications. In this case, it was not my anti-depressant; it was the fact that I am now a Type 1 diabetic and am now insulin dependent. My A1C, a metric of my blood sugar levels over 90 days, was 10.1. A person who does not have diabetes would have an A1C of under 7.   Today, my estimated A1C is about 7.7, which has led to clearer thinking, more energy, and in this case, depression. I feel a lot more like my usual chaotic good self, so I’ll see if I can get back into creating more things.
    • At the beginning of the year, I set out a list of goals, separated by quarter. Due to the above, I’ve not met any of those goals for the 1st quarter. Let’s go over those:
      • WORK: Professionally, identify one area of my job where we could improve the workflow–DONE
      • WORK: Average between 700-750 items a week at my job.  — FAILED (managed 500-700 items a week. More than anyone else on the team by a lot, so might need to revise.)
      • WORK: Outline and propose Multimedia Training for my department — ADDRESSED, REJECTED due to Personal information being the hangup. PII Security is important in my line of work.
      • CREATIVE: Podcast and Patreon at least once a week in 1Q — FAILED; see above.
      • CREATIVE: Gain 25 subscribers on Patreon.  — PENDING
      • CREATIVE: One Tentpole article a month — FAILED; see above
      • CREATIVE: One Photo and one Video Essay in 1Q — PENDING
      • ACADEMIC: Dedicated Learning Time once a month in 1Q — PENDING
      • FUN:  Karaoke once a month — PENDING
      • FUN: Photo Challenge once a month — FAILED; see above
      • FUN: New song on guitar once a month — FAILED; see above
      • FUN: Something that doesn’t involve work or creativity once a month – well, depending on how you look at it, spending more time in a hospital than anyone should qualify, but FAILED in the spirit of the intention.

        Since I feel better and things are getting as close to normal as things get, I intend to try and catch up on some of those pending and failed items, but we’ll see how it goes.


    • I didn’t go into much detail about this, but you’ll notice that this website has returned to a WordPress site. I don’t have a bad thing to say about Squarespace; I no longer require or desire the bells and whistles they provide. Still, even WordPress doesn’t quite capture what I want. The closest thing that captures what I wish is Dave Winer’s Scripting News, run on Dave’s outliner program Drummer. To get as close to that as possible, I make one post a day with all the items I want to cover. I don’t believe I have the ‘fu’ required to create something in Drummer. I intend to try, and if I’m successful by some quirk of fate, I may redirect the domain there. In a perfect world, I’d try to run it from my server, but it doesn’t look like that’s possible. I could be wrong. In the end, what I want is (maybe) simple:  One date per day, my writing for the day underneath with anchor tags for each item, and the ability to post those items to Twitter, Mastodon, etc.
    • Speaking of social media, I’m frankly getting sick of it. Facebook sucks, Instagram no longer focuses on photography,  Elon is intent on making Twitter a garbage fire, TikTok is OK, but mainly for fun, and LinkedIn is not what I’m trying to reach. Mastodon is OK, but I feel meh about the whole thing.   I no longer have a clear understanding as to why I’m on social media at all. It was to try to direct eyeballs here, but I spend so much time on those platforms that I spend next to nothing here where I should. I’ve half a mind to cancel all my social media accounts and work on optimizing everything for search to come here. That sounds like the direction I want to go. Or, I cross-post links to those places and not deal with them outside of that. The bottom line is that I no longer think that social media serves any purpose other than to agitate, and I don’t need that drama anymore. I certainly don’t need the distraction.
    • Not sure how this post is going to work going forward.  I’ll either post it in the evening, or write a bunch of stuff and post it the next morning.  Frankly, I’m leaning towards the latter.  That waym I might have the time to research anything that comes up and give you something more than my usual gas-filled take on things.  We’ll see.  if that’s the case, the next post will probably be Tuesday.

  • Wednesday, November 16th, 2022

    • Let’s start today with a Mea Culpa: Yesterday I released a Patreon Podcast. I had previously said that all the Patreon stuff would be public until January 1st, but some dumbass named Roley forgot to make the podcast public. It’s fixed now, I’ll try to remember that in future, and let us never speak of it again.

    • So, we’re not starting WW3. That’s a relief. I think this may be the first time I was happy to hear “It’s not so much a rule, it’s more like a guideline.” Granted, you and I both know there’s a long path from what happened yesterday and Mutually Assured Destruction, but for us 80s kids who lived with that shit, it was Tuesday.

    • The Senate is voting to invoke cloture on protecting same sex and interracial marriage right now. They have 62 votes right now to limit debate. It’s a procedural thing, but the fact that in this age you can find 60 votes on anything, and of all the things you can get Republicans to vote for? Mind. Blown. That means they can now proceed to HR 8404, the Respect for Marriage Act. This has already passed the House. Keep your eye on this.

    I don’t have a lot today; I have a Pod to get out for Patreon. See y’all tomorrow