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Ugh … lunacy keeps going.

This is the latest loon video/conspiracy ‘theory’ regarding COVID (which is pretty much no longer an every day topic). Snake Venom in the public water system. A few bullet-points to keep in mind on this one:

• He’s a Chiropractor
• COVID is a virus, not a venom
• “Do the opposite of what the CDC tells you to do” speaks for itself
• Typos in text overlays (“thier” vs “their”) – small detail, but detail
• “Scientific Points” in the video from a TV Show

Oh – and Birds (not real) … check this out.

Took Gavin for the day – more to come.

We’ve heard all throughout the pandemic from states and sectors of society that certain ‘freedoms’ and ‘rights’ were being tread upon. We’ve (sadly) seen -and continue to see- pickup trucks adorned with the Gadsden flag (“Don’t Tread On Me”), Trump flags, “Thin Blue Line” flags (which, BTW, go against US Flag Code). Further, the ‘in your face‘ flag waving of the US Flag itself as a cloak to disguise antiquated beliefs (xenophopic, bigoted, intolerant) is just disgusting and frightening.

But …

Whether one cares or not regarding peoples’ sexual identity, shouldn’t we be allowing that freedom? If no one should tread on me and my rights, why tread on them? If America is Free for Me or You, why can’t it be Free for Him, Her, Them?

Read on about Idaho and their efforts to ‘punish parents who take trans youth to other states for health care’. Head scratcher here – Idaho has been one of the most ‘don’t tread on me’ states in the west over the past couple of years.

Why does there continue to be so much hate in the world?

Regardless of whatever side you’re on with the Russia/Ukraine conflict, it’s interesting to see just how different the perspectives are in media and with social networking. Below is a video showing interesting similarities of pro-Russia messaging on TikTok by ‘influencers’.

Yet, another example of the twisted realities of the cancer of Social Media …

Ran across this the other day …

So you’re telling me Password1234 is pretty safe, huh?

So truckers are driving to DC to protest Mask Mandates and Vaccine Mandates in the US.

If these bozos can’t figure out that all mandates are gone (except Hawaii – which is 2,471 miles from the coast and any mainland highway) and/or are so late in getting this figured out, it’s no wonder why we are so behind on supply chain issues. And now they are driving 2,668 miles from LA to DC to sit in their trucks to ‘protest’.

At 8mpg for these monstrosities, that’s about $1,200 in gas (one way) each rig is wasting on this ridiculous venture. That buys about 4 banjos.

Ugh – ridiculous.

So I ran across this article from Harvard Design Magazine – the history of the 2×4 as it pertains to lumber/wood. Yeah – a bit of an odd post, but if you happen to shop your local hardware store/big-box, it is somewhat interesting.

TIL: they are 2x4s until they are ‘milled’ (basically, shaved smooth for sell).

Good read if you are a lumber or history buff … or simply board, er bored. Hah!

Honking your trucker horns is just … juvenile. Mandates/asks by the government … yeah, frustrating. I really don’t think truckers care about logic, though. It’s messed up, and I can understand/sympathize all sides here

(but much less the truckers. A very good friend in retail Loss Prevention audits company truckers [pulls them over, inspects cabs] and wears gloves on every check. Tells me some absolutely revolting stories about what’s in those cabs. Not saying every cab is like how your worst thoughts think … but most absolutely are]

This is when I recommend using Noise-Cancelling Headphones.

You see, with my years (many years) of travelling to many different types of towns and hotels, NOTHING is better than a set of Bose noise-cancelling headphones. I am seriously serious here. I’ve dealt with crazy hotel neighbors (screaming kids), agonies of plane travel noise, thin hotel walls, thin hotel floors, storms – even slept through tornado sirens (seriously – Amarillo TX November 2015). NOTHING. NO NOISE.

Worth it.

Toronto … buy a pair. Get a pair. Stay Strong.

Was using the bathroom in the casita. Curiously, saw the soap on the counter by the sink.

Aren’t all coconuts tropical?

It’s over in a few hours … but, MAN! I love October! NFL, College Football, NBA, MLB Baseball – even Hockey … All On. It’s incredible!

I am in my office and have 3 games on at once … Loving It.

Just had to say it …

So we have a few Echos around the house – more as a novelty rather than really using as a tool. But this idea is just getting creepy. I really don’t want Amazon in my refrigerator …

Was at Lowe’s yesterday with Tina and saw this while in the cabinet fixture aisle (building a cabinet for my 3D printer – more on that some other time) …

It’s just a curious thing that this really has to be called out on the packaging …

SO – after (I think it’s been) 3 months …

The Fire Table build is complete.

Why 3 months? Well …

1. I have a day job – only worked on it about 1 day a week for a few hours each
2. I built it 3 times – at least the top (polished concrete – 1st attempt was way to thick, 2nd attempt it bent while setting). The base was just once, but I took it slow while doing the top. The top was agony I will tell you. Not only doing it 3 times, but the final one was quite a few weekends of grinding and polishing. It was brutal work – even with me buying new tools to make it easier. Very messy to polish.
3. The videos you can find (that inspired me) on YouTube were ridiculous. The videos were 20 minutes-ish each … very deceptive. Made it seem like this would be a weekend project. I curse them all to this day.
4. A lot of ‘trial and error’. For example, hooking up the gas took me many hours based on just little things. I learned what a thermocouple is and the science of heat measurement w/volts and degrees. Not things the videos really shared.
5. I couldn’t count how many visits to Home Depot/Lowe’s/Ace I had – if I had to ballpark, I’d say (2-3 times a day x 13 weekends … 40-ish?).
6. Overall spend … tough to say, too. But a beast like this would run about $1500. I probably spent about $4-500 in raw materials. Plus, of course, my time. But in the end, to me, projects like this are worth it as I come out so much more wise on all involved. For example – if you look at the base … that really didn’t take long as I was using the knowledge acquired by other builds and woodwork and tools that I have acquired. I guess you’d say I’m getting better at this stuff. But man that top was brutal!

Looking forward to using once fall starts kicking in. Next step will be purchasing a wireless projector system (there are ones now that have 4-5 hours charges and can connect directly to YouTube TV) so we can watch games outside in the courtyard.

So … was shopping for shirts. Saw this:

Don’t get me wrong … I really don’t mind the mask thing (unlike these people, who really just flabbergast me). I mean – It’s not fun wearing them, but I digress.

I just couldn’t get to the point where I feel it important for my mask to match my shirt. Just goofy. It was on sale, though.

Over six months now and we have enough data to realize that the vaccines seem to be working. It just blows my mind that we still have these loons out there screaming about being tracked, it’s not ‘tested’, it alters DNA, school the libs, m’uh freedom, etc. Really?

Been wondering a lot (too much) about this lately and just think most of those who are ‘anti-vax’ are just scared of getting a shot. Yes, I really said that. But I digress.

Here’s a great example of the idiocy (from a freakin’ RN, mind you) we are seeing (if you don’t want to click – RN screaming about vaccine conspiracy. Now she’s dead – from COVID). It is just really disappointing. Sad.

By the way – 96% of doctors have been vaccinated … RNs 53-74%. Hmm. Science, yo.

One Day (man, I hope it’s soon) we will look back at this crazy stuff and just realize that science was -and always will be- right. In the meantime, Due Diligence.

Facebook/Twitter news is just destroying us.

Ugh.

Interesting article regarding North Korea and Kim Jong-un’s banning of various ‘western’ traits … to protect North Korea.

Of mention are the 15 Approved Cuts (below):

Um … what if I’m bald? I mean, I’m not planning on vacationing in NK for a while, but a genuine question here. The dude near the bottom right is kinda bald … but what happens in 20 years or so?

I tell you what, though, it would be pretty simple to be a barber there, right?

One more thing … looking at the NK Supercut Menu above, I’m not seeing this do:

So … I had personally calculated on April 12 that the COVID Pandemic will end on May 29, 2021. I was bored and decided to Math.

I have told family, friends, and co-workers. Not an aggressive discussion or proclamation – just using a little math and predictive analytics. How? Math with Vaccination Rates (daily number of vaccinations), Infection %s (how much of the population has had it), Death rates, Positive Counts/Rate/decline percentages, etc. Taking all of this into account at that time, I was pretty confident that things (Pandemic) would end on that day. I had actually said “47 days – it’s done”.

Now – problem is, according to various authorities, it is still unclear as to what defines it being ‘over’. And I don’t have a definition, either. I think we could debate that all night. Back then, I was kind of thinking “no masks” would be a good indicator; however, it seems every state has it’s own understanding of the CDC’s directives, WHO, and OSHA. Leadership in the US has been better on the pandemic since Trump became a one-termer; however, can someone step it up and define the end? It always baffles me how leadership (Red or Blue) seems to be such idiots on PLANNING and GOALS. Too much conflict/opinion …

At this point – I stand by my math and projections. By the 29^th, we will see all businesses mask free. We will see ‘social distancing’ and restrictive efforts gone. Things will be completely open – at least in the US. Which – by definition, is sketchy as to whether it will be the end of a pandemic or now just an epidemic. I think if one looks beyond the US, we could still [technically] be in a pandemic (cross-regional infections) … but I’m thinking relatively local. The fact of the matter is – the vaccines work. No rocket surgery here. But I digress – and don’t want to get ‘political’ (it’s sad that science is up against social differences/opinions – it really is).

What my point is – I think there will be a lot of Masks and Sanitizer on sale in the latter half of this year. Either that, or a rage trend of Mask Quilts. Can’t wait, frankly.

Um … so vaccines slow the virus? Yes, apparently.

Jesus, folks. Get Vaccinated!

[BTW – my wifi is AWESOME since I got my 2nd dose]

If there ever were any questions or doubt regarding human evolution, there is one argument for its logic occuring literally under our noses.

We continously hear from politicians and the religious right (every time there is a school shooting, the topic surfaces) of the dangers of video games on children/youth. With 2020’s news cycle, the topic has obviously been pushed out of primetime for larger, more important issues.

Of note, while there certainly is a link between tv violence and youth impact, other forms of entertainment throughout history consistently fail to prove a strong correlation to youth behavior/psychology.

• There was the music industry’s Parental Advisory hearings of the late 1980s – which still have yet to prove linkage of explicit lyrics to adolescent behavior.
• Even books/novels were considered dangerous in the 18th century as they reached prominence in entertainment.

Video Games look more and more to be joining the realm of Music and Books as a force which fails to show correlation to aggression.

Yet another study from Stetson University (as a follow-up from another 2015 study from the American Psychological Association) shows again – no substantative link. “Dubious at Best”.

Consider this quip at the end:

“Games are now more important than ever for socialization, feeling autonomy and control during an uncertain time, and just de-stressing”

Game On.

So this is just stupid on many levels (newsarticle out of Florida) where the Sheriff is announcing his department’s ‘take-down’ of what seems to be some sort of Amazon Firestick Mafia. This group of flea-market sellers were selling “Jail-Broken” Firesticks for streaming via Amazon.

Okay – “Jailbreaking” a firestick sounds like tech wizardry. Granted, jailbreaking really became prominent hacking vernacular years ago with the iPhone. That process was a bit more subverse – with resetting the idevice, installing other apps, security adjustments, pirating aps, etc. The process for ‘jailbreaking’ a firestick is literally clicking one box in the device’s settings – see below.

True – once you do this, you can install Kodi, VPNs, etc – but there is nothing ‘illegal’ about a Firestick that has this option (third party apps) selected.

The context here is what one does with the device once the portal has been opened. What irks me on this piece is how giddy the Sheriff is, announcing the take-down of these grandmas.

Also wild is the fact that there is a market for this. This group figured out how to click a menu item and were selling the device for 2x street value? A user not doing their research, but who wants to stream from the apps that can now be installed, is drawn to a pre-“hacked” version. I would be inclined to think that if they can’t figure out how to click this menu item to open the device’s streaming options, they probably won’t be able to figure out how/where to get the aps or how to use.

I’m not saying I support the jailbreaking or that I support the streaming with third party aps … I’m just saying this Press Conference is silly when you really look into the device and its settings. It’s not like we have the cartel here. Yes, a user is subvertting the proper channels to be able to view paid content – but why the hell does Amazon leave the option on the device? If they wanted to curtail/eliminate the activity, maybe they should make the option less simplistic?

And the fact that the Sheriff is holding a press conference to announce how they took down the granny cartel is a bit preposterous. He really seems giddy over his team’s sleuthing. The old addage of “Don’t you have better things to do” (I remember hearing my dad say that the few times he was pulled over) rings a little true here.

Not terribly earth-shattering here, but interesting features on a simple tape measure.

The loose end always made me a little skeptical/nervous when measuring … now I know it’s actually a feature.

Ready for some post-feast board games … appropriate one this year.

This may, ordinarily, seem hokey. But 2020 has been a very diffic … you know.

Both Elyce and Gavin are ‘remote learning’ due to COVID. Elyce has been good with things (it’s her senior year, and she’s pretty much taken many of her more difficult/AP classes already) and has adapted accordingly. Still was a challenge to start in August with things, but her grades have migrated towards her norm. It takes time for any student, I know.

Gavin – well, it’s his first year in high school. He’s a freshman. We warned him, leading into it, that high school would be different. Middle school and Elementary were a breeze for him – ALWAYS straight As. Remote learning, high school … it’s been hard. It’s hard as a parent to constantly ‘nag’ and follow-up every day with class times, schedules, etc. These guys are on conference calls about 1-2 hours a day … the rest is ‘self-directed’. It must be tough … I get it.

As a result, he has struggled. Any 15 year-old would. Not failing by any means, just a lot of follow-up and nagging to turn in assignments, etc. Ugh. I feel for them both right now.

BUT – tonight, as I videod in via FaceTime to say goodnight – he was happy. 100% on an Algebra test. Man that was so cool to see him light up like that! He can do it – he’s a smart guy. I hate how things are and how they have had to learn like this. It hurts to see – it is lonely for them, I know.

But that was so awesome to see him so happy like that. Elyce turned the corner in October, I think Gavin is doing it now. They are adapting – Dad is happy.

We’ll get through this! Damn it – we must. We will.

This just in. Apparently the fridge is opened -on average this year- 31 times a day.