Is it me or is it even harder for a competent computer user to do what he needs to do (such as searching for a specific directory on his hard drive) using Windows than it used to be?

You know I love pinball and play simulations of same all the time. I see that the newer pinball tables have what I like to call "Mulligan Routines" that give you an extra ball should the ball you plunge into the playfield drain without scoring many points (it is of course taken from the term "mulligan" which is a "do over" in the game of golf).

Many people like them obviously, but I'm rather irritated by them. If a ball drains, it drains. There's no need for the machine to be helpful to me by tossing me another ball for a second chance. Further I don't know how to disable the routines in the simulations I play so I guess I'll have to deal with them.

From the files of The Department of First World Problems

I had done a substantial business with Amazon.com yesterday with well over $100.00 in Christmas/birthday gifts bought as well as over $100.00 in personal items bought. I mention this because later on I got a notification from Alexia, the AI that lives in my Echo Dots, saying that "it might be time to order more Dot's Pretzels" with the suggestion that she put an order in.

What did I do? I declined the suggestion, thinking out loud "haven't you guys gotten enough business from me today?". Sheesh!

Am I naive in saying that Trump and Vance lack class in not attending Dick Cheney's funeral? I understand that they did not share the same philosophies but I thought It'd be polite and classy if they showed up to pay their respects to a fellow politician and public servant.

I love rainy days. It gives me an excuse not to go out and instead remain inside my warm, comfy house doing quiet, solitary things.

Target has been running a series of Christmas sale commercials with the Dr. Seuss character Grinch (and some with Cindy Lou Who as well) of late. It occurred to me that this is rather ironic since the good doctor intended "The Grinch Stole Christmas" as a protest against the commercialization of the holiday.

Take all the time you need to process that. :/

Fellow voters, we all know that that our elected people are diddling and digging in their heels instead of making agreements that will fund the services that we require. May I remind all of you to remember this pain and remember it well so that in the next elections more heads will be rolling than in the French Reign of Terror!

Was thinking about the upcoming change from Win 10 to Win 11 recently and gazed on my TRS 80 Model 102 notebook computer which sits between my keyboard and my monitor. It occurred to me that upgrades were so much better in computer days of yore. All you needed to do was unplug all the peripherals (the mouse, the joysticks, the printer, etc) from the old computer, unplug the computer itself, swap the old machine with the new machine and hook everything up again. Your software was on disks (hard drives were rare in those days) and could be loaded when needed and your operating system was in ROM (no need for configuring or constant updates). Simplicity in itself. Of course modern systems can do much more than the old systems but still there is something to be said about simplicity and efficiency.

I just watched This is Spinal Tap and couldn't help but wonder if the actors and or director interviewed rock musicians, asking them, "what's the weirdest thing that's happened to you while performing or backstage?" ;D

Quick question for the geeks....If you've seen The Mandalorian you know that the title character has as his charge a "grogu". Point to ponder....is "grogu" the character's name or the name of the species? I've always wondered this.

Snugglebear was our poodle. We adopted her as a puppy back in 2008 and she gave us years of love and devotion. In return we gave her everything a dog could ever want: a dish filled with cool water to slake her thirst, a bowl of dried dog kibble and another bowl of wet dog food for when she was hungry, a nicely sized yard so she could romp around and play in, soft comfy beds to rest when she was tired and most importantly three laps to curl up in and three sets of hands to give her good measures of pets and scratches.

Lately however she'd been showing her age. She seemed to be spending most of her time sleeping in one of her beds and when disease robbed her of her sight in both eyes each of us knew the end was near-it was just a question of when.

Recently she'd been laying down and crying out in pain. My father was understandably concerned and took her to the vet. Apparently the vet recommended that the most humane course of action was to put her down so with that in mind she crossed The Rainbow Bridge this evening.

Even though all three of us knew this was our day to say goodbye to her we're all choked up. She was more than a pet, more than an animal but a full fledged member of our family deserving as much love, tenderness and devotion as any of us.

Farewell Snugglebear! You may be gone but you're definitely not forgotten! Fall 2008 - Summer 2025!

Before Ozzy Osbourne died a few weeks back he gave a "Back to the Beginning" farewell concert. Because of his Parkinson's Disease he could not stand but delivered his songs sitting on an ornate, custom made black throne. Now there's been some debate as to what to do with that throne. I think that throne should be taken (with the permission of the Osbourne family of course) and put as a display in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio in its "Legends" exhibit. There it can stay safe while people can look at it and learn about its contribution to rock history. There's no guarantee this will happen of course but one can only hope. w

Heard that Tom Lehrer, noted songsmith and satirist passed on at the age of 97. He'd done everything from music from the old program That Was The Week That Was to songs for The Electric Company TV show. I've done some thought on how he should be remembered and have come up with the conclusion that he should be remembered (sung) "Reverently! Reverently! Reverent-ly!" (if you know, you know, you know ;-D)

Stephen Colbert must have been a major thorn in the side to the MAGA gang. The Fox News cadre of conservative kookaburras were crowing crazily like contented cocks at his show's cancellation. :/

Heard that Reverend Jimmy Swaggart died this morning and to that I say, "HELL YEAH!"

I recall Swaggart clearly as one of the smug, overly righteous people who called the rest of us sinners-until that is he was caught in flagrante delicto with a prostitute. He tried apologizing (I remember seeing footage of him saying teary eyed "I have sinned against You, my Lord") but it was too late. The Assemblies of God defrocked him and his career was ruined. He continued preaching but he wasn't as popular as he once was. If you ask me, it was a fitting punishment for a so called holy man who in reality was less than holy himself. Now he's gone and if there's a Hell he's surely roasting in it. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

I have a huge streaming library of movies and watch every night. Last night's selection was one I hadn't seen om quite a while.."Boys in the Band". It tells the story of a group of homosexual friends that gather for a party and due to liquor being consumed bare their souls. I enjoyed it but to be honest it's not an easy movie to take. There's no one to root for in this movie.
In fact, they're all antiheroes that spend the entire movie's length slinging barbs (sexually themed and otherwise) at each other. I've read that the characters are not totally likable due to the fact that they were facing the fact homosexuality wasn't accepted in that era (the movie came out in 1970) and that there was plenty of hate going around (it was made when the pain of the Stonewall riots were fresh in the minds of homosexuals and others of the period). Still, it is a good movie to watch as a piece of gay cinematic history, a good character driven movie and with the attitude of "there but the grace of God go I".

Does anyone remember a rather unique event that was held at Midwest Fur Fest several years ago called "Solvitur Ambulando" or "it is solved by walking". This was a maze that congoers could wander through if they need time for quiet reflection. As far as i know, no other convention has done something this like for or since.

Went to the eye doctor yesterday for my annual check up. His diagnosis was that I am nearsighted, especially in my right eye.

I was thinking of this later when it hit me. That diagnosis was rather MYOPIC of him and he should have had more FARSIGHT in his exam. ;D

Correct me if I'm wrong but on the subject of Trump calling out the Marines to quell the LA riots I don't think he can do this. There's a law called "Posse Comitatus" that essentially states that the various branches of the military can't be called out to quell uprisings unless authorized by Congress.

Solitude is great but I must confess something-the downside. The worst part of solitude is being lonely and having no one to reach out to. I like my solitude well enough, but there are times when I'm gripped by a cold emptiness that I know I can't fill because there's no one around to fill it with. Let's face it, I've never been very good at social graces and have never made friends easily. There's also a paradox to this...Even in my loneliest times I know that if someone tries to help me out, I'll just push them away. I really don't know how to handle this.

I was going through some stuff this afternoon to determine what to throw away and what to keep when I stumbled across something remarkable. One of my sophomore English teachers had assigned me a project that required me to tell about who I was and what I wanted for the future. One of the most remarkable things was back then I wrote about "dreaming about talking animals". Interestingly I had always daydreamed about "talking animals" but until the early 90s didn't know that there was a fandom devoted to them (the "furries" of course). Again I'd dreamed about "talking animals" all my life but as far as I know this was the first time I'd ever expressed my daydream. With this in mind, I do wish that I knew about the "furry fandom" back in the day as it would have made things a hell of a lot more bearable back then. *sigh*

My father recently brought home a "420 Guide", which was a guide to the best local marijuana supplies, events and whatnot. Having lived through the "just say no" era of the 80s I found myself thinking that it was good that Nancy Reagan, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education gang and by extension Jack Webb (who turned many episodes of the 60s incarnation of his Dragnet TV show into anti drug sermons) were not around anymore to see how acceptable recreational and medicinal marijuana has become. ;/

I've been going through the episodes of the old Thunderbirds TV show. I'm wondering if the puppetry that Gerry and Sylvia Anderson used to create The Thunderbirds TV show (not to mention many more) inspired Jim Henson and his company in their puppetry. The Andersons after all were making their puppets do things that no marionettes did before, just like Henson and company did with their hand and rod puppetry.

A few days ago there was a bill introduced in the Texas legislature banning "non human behavior" at schools. If a child was caught acting like an animal or "meowing", "barking", or "hissing" like one, his or her parents would be called to take him or her home.

This little bill, called the Forbidden Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education, also known as the FURRIES Act, is designed to steer away from acting like "furries" (in other words, anthropomorphic animals) and toward getting a serious education.

Not only is this bill a solution in search of a problem (I'm sure that most students understand that they are in school to learn and not goof off), there are several issues I see with it should it become law. Among them, would, say, kindergarteners, get in trouble for stomping around like pachyderms when the teacher plays the old Hap Palmer song The Elephant? It's fun to role play as animals when you're little, that, and it's great exercise as well.

What also would happen if a teacher tries to teach his or her students about animals and says things like "What is this animal? A bear? What does a bear do? What sound does a bear make?" To me it's innocent fun (not to mention educational) to get kids to associate an animal with what it sounds like or does, but this is the law carried to its logical conclusion, if you ask me.

Another thing, if these examples seem silly one can't assume that these issues won't arise. Some parents are uber paranoid about what their children learn in school these days, and don't forget that trust toward schoolteachers and schools themselves are at an all time low these days. All it would take is one pearl clutching, stiff necked parent to complain in order to bring the weight of the law down on what is (and has been up until now) traditionally innocent childhood fun.

One can only hope that this law dies before it goes too far and something really happens. We'll see about this.

Recently there was a measles outbreak in Texas. Many Texans unfortunately are anti vaccination types and now their children are dying because of it. I guess I should feel sympathy for those types and their ignorance but I don't. "Mess with the disease tiger, get his fangs and claws." says I. :/