I’ve been sick

February 25th, 2014

For a while, actually. I originally came down with it at Christmas, and the medicine I was prescribed seemed to work fairly well. Unfortunately, I suffered a relapse. I got prescribed more antibiotics, but it’s been a struggle. At one point, I spent five consecutive days flat on my back, all day, every day.

I’m much better now, but I still have a bit of a cough and my voice isn’t completely back. I was going to go to a local ukulele jam tonight, but I came home from work exhausted and took a nap, and it’s too late to show up now.

I’ve been accumulating links, and I may make a huge “miscellany” post, or I may go through and keep the reference links and discard the rest. I’ll decide that later. Maybe.

Posted in Fitness & Health, It's all about me | Comments Closed

Well, that was painful

February 3rd, 2014

Yesterday’s Super Bowl is now history, and Denver has, once again, lost big. I believe that Denver is now on the losing end of three of the five most lopsided Super Bowl games. I suspect that this fellow is feeling more pain than most, though. Ah, well. As John Wayne said, “You have to be tough if you’re going to be stupid.” Someone on Twitter suggested that he could fix it by having the “a” changed to a “u.”

Also on Twitter, a Denver fan asked for someone to tweet something funny, so that he could laugh instead of crying over the game. The response was quite amusing.

I’m rather partial to these, as well.

I was expecting traffic to be worse than normal this morning; I’ve seen surly drivers after Broncos losses before. Surprisingly (and gratifyingly), I saw nothing of the sort. Now, tomorrow, when there’s snow on the road again, things may be different, but that’ll be because there are always people who don’t know how to drive in snow, or don’t care to be careful.

Posted in Fun Stuff | Comments Closed

That’s one way to tell I’m getting old

January 12th, 2014

I had a strange and surreal dream last night. Normally, I don’t remember dreams, but the alarm went off in the middle of this one.

I dreamed that I was lying face-down in bed, reading a section of the paper that Marion had just handed me. Apparently, the mattress was not an impediment to sight, my arms, or the newspaper. I was reading an article, illustrated with numerous photos, concerning people who had had copyrights violated or their DNA stolen, or both. A Japanese woman was next to me, explaining what had happened to a Japanese track team that was shown in one of the pictures.

When I was younger, if I had dreamed of being in bed with two women, we would not have been reading the newspaper.

Posted in It's all about me | Comments Closed

Happy New Year

January 1st, 2014

After returning from New York, I saw a doctor for my cold, expecting to be prescribed antibiotics. The doctor wasn’t certain if I actually had a cold or if I was suffering bad allergies. As a result, I’m on both antibiotics and steroids. Because of the administration instructions, I started the antibiotics a day earlier than the steroids, and was feeling better before I started the steroids, making me think that allergies are not the correct diagnosis.

Be that as it may, it appears that it will be a while before I’m healthy again. However, it’s New Year’s Day, and that needs to be celebrated. My parents had several traditions for New Year’s that were a mix; Mom was from England, and wanted the house to be clean before midnight on New Year’s Eve. At midnight, the front door had to be opened for a minute to let the old year out and the new year in, and it was hoped that the first visitor of the new year would bring a coin and bread.

Dad was originally from Philadelphia, but the only tradition of his was eating black-eyed peas, which he picked up while he was in the Air Force.

Me, I don’t do much of anything special. Marion and I like to go dancing, and had plans for last night that were disrupted by my illness. Instead, we watched That’s Entertainment, Part II on TCM, then turned to NBC to watch the time-delayed ball drop, then went to bed. I didn’t sleep well, unfortunately.

I’ll finish this post with someone else’s view of New Year’s, found here:

calvin-new-year

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Back from travel

December 29th, 2013

Just returned this evening from a trip to New York. Part of it was fine, but I came down (hard!) with something on Christmas Day. Since then, I’ve been congested, unable to sleep at night, unable to stay awake during the day, and generally miserable.

On my return, I had a few hundred spam emails and pending comments for this blog, mostly trying to advertise sneakers, boots, headphones, sunglasses, drugs, shemale porn, surprises (“click the upcoming website”), and one for personalized Hanukkah pencils. They’ve been simple links, links with text in broken English, links in Japanese characters, in Chinese characters, and several in Arabic characters. At least my blog is so obscure and ignored that I can safely presume that any comments I receive are spam – the last valid comment came in over a year ago.

Posted in Activities, Behind the scenes | Comments Closed

Some things are not meant to be seen

December 12th, 2013

Where I work, we’re planning a small Christmas celebration. The company is small enough, and business is tough enough, that we’re not going out to a restaurant for dinner. We are planning, however, to bring in lunch from a local restaurant.

We have a number of restaurant menus available, but the boss wanted to make certain that we had an up-to-date one from the local restaurant we’d decided to use.

Unfortunately, our ISP’s content filter prevented us from accessing the restaurant’s website. The reason given was “Forbidden category: Alcohol/Tobacco.” Really? You can get a drink with a meal? What horror!

Whose decision was this? We have to be prevented from finding out anything about the restaurant because they have a liquor license? I suppose next year I’ll see “Forbidden category: Serving size/Transfat.” Or “Forbidden category: Drink refills.” The way things are going, it may not be long before I’ll see “Forbidden category: Politically incorrect.”

Fortunately, there was a workaround. I downloaded the menu to my cellphone, then sent it as an email attachment to my work email address, from which I could print it. There was a minor glitch there, as the only two menu choices my phone gives me for attachments are “Attach Picture” and “Attach Video.” Fortunately (again), selecting “Attach Picture” gives me the option of attaching any file.

I’ve submitted a request to recategorize the website on the grounds that the current categorization is ridiculous. We’ll see (in about a week) if it has any effect.

Posted in Food and Drink, Why? | Comments Closed

I haven’t quit blogging …

December 2nd, 2013

… it’s just that I’m lazy.

I saw that quote somewhere today, although I don’t remember where. It fits, though. Time to clear some tabs. These are pretty much just some of the tabs I have open, and not the links I’ve accumulated over the last month or so.

A contest to win a Martin guitar.

Some free SF. And some more.

Not always safe for work (depending on your workplace), but an interesting site.

A collection of historical software.

Interesting fact: More whites were killed by blacks in 8 years than blacks were lynched during the 84 years in which lynchings occurred. And don’t forget that a lot of whites were lynched then, also.

A marvelous video of one of Woody Allen’s standup stories.

How to opt out of data tracking on your most-used sites.

UsVsTh3m is a British site that has some fun things. Here’s a link to a list of some of their fun posts.

This looks like a cool tool for guitarists.

Need or want a home distillery? Check here.

Fifty hacks that will make your life easier (for certain values of “will” and “easier”).

Want to get into shape? Try the scientific 7-minute workout.

Every time you make a typo …

I haven’t spent any time on this site yet, but it looks interesting.

I’m going to have to spend some time here – I can always do with finding improvements in notetaking and productivity.

Ethanol is not something that should be going into fuel.

My state senator has resigned rather than lose her seat to recall. One of my acquaintances/casual friends was involved in the recall, and has some blogging about what happened on his site. Personally, I didn’t see any of these tactics, but I saw a number of protests at the sites of the petition drive, and I don’t doubt that they occurred.

Which are the best- and worst-run states?

How to choose the perfect board game.

Need some ideas for Christmas presents? Check out Dave Barry’s Gift Guide.

If you’ve never seen the classic WKRP turkey drop, it’s something you need to watch.

This cat has it in for someone.

This is an Advent calendar I can appreciate.

What if buying coffee were like buying health insurance under Obamacare?


What happens in Room 101? Read the linked article, also; Francis is very good.

This is a good quiz on current news. I’ve taken it a few times. This time, the only question I missed was the one about the graph of the Dow.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Closed

A nice day

November 24th, 2013

Spent a few hours volunteering mid-day, helping pass out food packages. Worked in the kitchen preparing dinner this afternoon – beef rib roast, roasted vegetables (sweet potatoes, onions, carrots, garlic, and chestnuts), Yorkshire pudding, and shallot gravy. It was a special dinner for my daughter, whose birthday is coming up. She also picked up her combination birthday/Christmas present: the Designer’s Edition of Ogre, which I backed on Kickstarter.

I don’t game, but she does, and she loved her present. She knew it was coming – it was supposed to be her present last year, but it took longer than expected to get everything nailed down for the release. Worth it, though. It’s an impressive package.

Posted in Activities, Food and Drink, Fun Stuff, Toys | Comments Closed

It’s Veteran’s Day

November 11th, 2013

My thanks to all my fellow veterans, even the WooPoos 🙂

Posted in Military | Comments Closed

Cooking is great. It’s a wonderful excuse …

November 3rd, 2013

for playing with knives and fire.

I have a button that says that. I do enjoy cooking and baking, but the toys can get awfully pricey. I don’t have really good knives, but I do have reasonable ones, and I do try to keep them sharp and take care of them – I own an assortment of sharpening stones from 200 to 6000 grit, as well as two or three books on sharpening and use of knives and other edged implements.

I ran across a mention of Japanese Binchotan charcoal the other day and got curious, so I searched on the web. Most of the sites I found were merely descriptive, but I did find one that sold a few varieties of it. It also sells a number of Japanese-made knives. I believe that this one one is the most expensive knife they sell. Note that they charge 50% more for left-handed versions.

It’s a bit rich for my tastes. I can’t justify a $300 knife to myself, let alone something like that. I also don’t have need for such a specialized knife. That being said, I can dream, can’t I?

Posted in Food and Drink, Fun Stuff, It's all about me, Toys | Comments Closed

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