The Boston Diaries

Friday, January 01, 2016

All's quiet on the New Year Front

It's next year. And it's finally quiet outside. I can only hope it stays this way.

And that we still have a lawn.

Happy New Year everyone!

Monday, January 04, 2016

The Big Short

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

—Upton Sinclair

Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.

—John Maynard Keynes

Bunny and I just saw “The Big Short,” based on the book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. I can't say anything about the book, not having read it, but the movie was good. It was also amusing in that it broke the fourth wall multiple times. Such as when they cut to someone famous, like celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain or economist Richard Thaler and actress/singer Selena Gomez, and have them explain some complicated financial term through cooking or playing black jack. Other cases of breaking the fourth wall occur when characters have just finished a scene and then explain that it really didn't happen that way.

It was amusing. And it just worked for this movie.

It's well worth seeing.

And it was also sobering to see just how crazy the housing bubble was.

Wednesday, January 06, 2016

Notes on two overheard phone conversations pertaining to some nefarious objective

“Young Mr. Hoade!”

“I have bad tidings, young Mr. Conner! The accursed airline has cancelled my flight! Now my plans to kidnap you have gone astray!”

“Those scofflaws! Did they perchance give a pathetic excuse for the cancellation?”

“We're currently having … a weather moment here in Lost Wages.”

“Weather moment? Does Lost Wages even have weather? as I seem to recall, it's either bright and scortching hot, or dark and freezing cold.”

“Apparently the pilots here do not know how to react to a light drizzle.”

“As your attorney, I advise you to go medieval on their behinds. Also, I see they have a flight that is not cancelled, going to Detroit followed by a flight here to Lower Sheol. Try getting on that one.”

“Will do, young Mr. Conner!”

“Young Mr. Hoade!”

“I have good tidings, young Mr. Conner! I found another airline that will attempt the perilous flight through a light drizzle to Lower Sheol!”

“Another airline? What happened to the accursed airline?”

“All flights cancelled. None of their pilots could face the slight misting from dihydrogen monoxide.”

“So you got a round trip from the other airline?”

“No, one way. The accursed airline will still honor the trip back from Lower Sheol to Lost Wages.”

“I'm flummoxed.”

“The accursed airline refunded the entire ticket price and let me keep the return ticket. I was then able to get a one-way ticket on the other airline to Lower Sheol.”

“Wonderful!”

“And I shall still be able to kidnap you tomorrow.”

“And I shall still be able to drive the getaway car.”

“House of the Rising Sun, here we come!”

Tuesday, February 02, 2016

Shatner's World

I must say, William Shatner certainly put on a show. Over the span of two hours (which didn't feel at all like two hours) he regaled the audience with stories of his life (and make no mistake—this is his show, all about things Shatner), how he started in theater (and why … he does … those … dramatic pauses in … his speech!) moved into film and television, his dealing with death (his father, a beloved horse, his third wife) and of course, his “singing” career. He did “sing” “Real,” but did not “sing” “Space Oddity,” “Major Tom (Coming Home)” or most regrettably—perhaps mercifully depending upon your view, “Rocket Man.”

Other than not “singing” some of his more notorious “songs” it was fun. And you never got the idea he's 84. Eighty-four! And surprisingly, the auditorium wasn't even all that full. I mean, Shatner! How can you not like him? Unless you're George Takei that is.

Saturday, February 06, 2016

An amusing spam email that certainly wins the “Nice Attempt To Bypass Spam Filtering Programs” Award

From

henry thomas <henrythomas44@hotmail.com>

To

undisclosed recipients: ;

Subject

Hello, I'm Henry Thomas 22 years old boy,I humbly write to solicit for your partnership and assistance in transferring and investing of my inherited fund which is USD$8.3.M US Dollars from my late father who died during the crisis in my country.Please I need your urgent assistant, contact for more information on how you are going to receive the total fund for an inverstment in your country and also assist me to join you to continue my education as well,I wait your reply. Mr Henry Thomas

Date

Sat, 6 Feb 2016 20:19:32 +0900 (JST)

That's it. That's the entire email message. Either “henry thomas” confused the subject line entry field for the email entry field, or this is a novel attempt to avoid content filtering of email for spam analysis.

I'm almost tempted to reply to him in the subject line to see if he does likewise, and thus, we carry out an entire email conversation via empty emails and overly long and verbose subject lines.

Penn & Teller

Bunny and I went to see Penn & Teller live at the Kravis Center for Performing Arts. We both had a good time watching them from the nosebleed section, despite having already seen most of their act on television and YouTube (the only new thing we saw was Penn juggling fire batons (pretty easy according to Penn) and broken wine bottles (which is hard, given they're different weights and, well, wrist-slittingly sharp)). We also saw them deal with ~~victims~~ volunteers who, shall we say, weren't quite up to speed (“No, keep your arm up … no, up! Hold it here! No … here!”).

The one trick I was hoping to see was their famous bullet catch, but alas, they did not do that trick. They did, however, allow one person in the audience to have their smart phone video record disappearing and reappearing in a dead fish. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the resulting video, so we still have no idea how that trick was done.

Oh wait …

Monday, February 08, 2016

Kung Fu Panda 3

I really love “Kung Fu Panda” and “Kung Fu Panda 2” and I'm happy to report that “Kung Fu Panda 3” is just as good, just as funny, and just a gorgeous as the other two.

Really, it's worth seeing just for the artwork (in fact, it was the artwork in “Kung Fu Panda 2” that drew Bunny into the series to begin with). Just wonderful.

While the story isn't anything we already haven't seen in the previous movies (evil Kung Fu master threatening to take over the land and only Po the Panda can stop him, only he doesn't believe he can) it's really the characters that make these movies. And don't forget—pandas.

Lots and lots of pandas.

Being pandas.

Oh so cute.

Did I mention the pandas?

Thursday, February 18, 2016

“… a subtle fruity and sweet, highly aromatic cup … ”

When drinking hot tea, I tend to prefer loose leaf tea. It's a thing, I guess. So I was rather surprised to find loose leaf tea on the menu at the restaurant tonight.

[Organic Darjeeling Estate. We're in Boca, dahling. Of course it's organic!]

Good tea. And it was cheaper than Bunny's lemonade (go figure!).

Writing Chinese umopapisdn

Back in my university days, I took a class in Chinese calligraphy (because … well … just because). While I only learned how to write about a dozen different logograms I did learn that there is a definite “drawing” order in writing them (generally, left to right, top to bottom), and because of that, the individual strokes will have a certain “look” to them.

So while Bunny and I were at an Asian-themed restaurant tonight, I noticed some Chinese logograms on the wall.

[Even umopapisdn (it helps if you turn your head upsidedown), this is way better than it used to be. At one point, they had random lines on the walls that some clueless “artist” thought looked like Chinese writing. I found that way more annoying than this.]

They were upsidedown.

Seriously.

Once I saw those, I could not ignore them.

Sigh.

Notes on an overheard conversation while eating at an Asian-themed restaurant

“That looks like some form of chili pepper.”

“Yup. I decided against putting them in my soup.”

“Hmm … let me try one.”

“Are you sure?”

“Ooh … that has a bite.”

“How hot?”

“It's got a definite bite to it. My lips are tingling.”

“That's pretty hot then.”

“Oh … my libs! I can't feel my libs! They're numb!”

“I'm definitely glad I didn't put them in the soup.”

“Ahhhhh! My libs! I can'b feeb my libs!”

Monday, February 29, 2016

This is not the leap day you are looking for

I was all set to write about how today wasn't Leap Day, but rather it was the 24^th of this month when I realized, I already wrote about this obscure piece of arcane calendar lore over a decade ago!

So, here's to the Leap Day that isn't a Leap Day!

Wednesday, March 02, 2016

Observations on an incident in the Ft. Lauderdale Office of The Corporation

Sean: [Sean is typing away at the computer when suddenly …] Oops. I didn't mean to add all those files to the source repository. How to I reverse svn add?
SVN: [Doesn't say a word.]
Sean: Okay svn, be that way. Let's check the manual. [Sean goes the check the manual. Many minutes go by.] Okay, let's see what the Great and Powerful Oz Google has to say about this. [Sean checks Google] Hmm … okay, let's try this. [Sean types a command.]
SVN: Okay.
Sean: And let's see the results …
SVN: I'm sorry Sean, I can't let you do that on a damaged repository sandbox.
Sean: What?
SVN: I'm sorry Sean, I can't set you do that on a damaged repository sandbox.
Sean: Okay Google, what else do you have for me?
Google: Much more of the same command that didn't work in the first place. But here, try this random command.
SVN: I'm sorry Sean, but you are horribly screwed right now.
Sean: Okay svn, take this!
SVN: Okay Sean, but I still think you are totally screwed right now.
Sean: Um, guys … [Sean turns to his fellow cow-orkers] Could you update your main repository? [T starts typing furiously; J hears this and decides to let T be the guinea pig.]
T's SVN: I'm sorry T, you are completely screwed right now.
T: I'm completely screwed right now.
Sean: [Visibly trying not to throw the computer across the office.] Okay, svn, take this!
SVN: I'm sor—
Sean: And this!
SVN: I'm so—
Sean: And this you XXXXXXX XXXXX XX XXXX!
SVN: I'm sorry Sean, you are even more screwed now than you were before.
Sean: [Blood vessels are about to pop out of his skull. A stream of ornate sacraficial daggers are pouring out of his eyes towards the computer as he rips the power cord out from the computer.
Computer: I'm a MacBook Pro. I'm happily running on battery power right now.
Sean: Nnnnrrrrrrggggggggggggggaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrg! [Sean's head is about to explode.]
MacBook Pro: If you are thinking of ripping the battery out of me, I need to remind you that I am a sealed unit and there is no possible way you can gain access to the batteries to rip them out.
Sean: Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! [Sean is visibly shaking with anger, face red with rage.]
The Other Laptop on his Desk: Besides, it's not a good idea to rip the battery out of a laptop. I'm just saying …
Sean: [Jabs the power button the MacBook Pro.]
MacBook Pro: Do you wish to shut down now? Cancel, okay, or log off? [A loud thud is heard in the office as Sean plants his head through the desk.]

Why bother reading pages when you can just spam them and hope for the best

From

"Ashley Knowles" <leah@sponsorconnection.org>

To

"sean" <sean@conman.org>

Subject

Thank You for Supporting Veterans on boston.conman.org

Date

Wed, 2 Mar 2016 12:24:48 -0800

Hello,

I came across this page of your site http://boston.conman.org/2004/11 and noticed that you are linking to http://www.va.gov/opa/vetsday and other resources for servicemen and women. I wanted to thank you for supporting veterans and active military. This is a mission I have been deeply involved in as well. If I may have just a moment of your time, I wanted to talk to you about a serious health struggle among veterans - and also suggest an addition to your page.

[ … ]

Thank you,

Ashley Knowles

Outreach Coordinator

outreach@advocatesforhealth.org

It's only because today is such a great day that this spam email caught my eye. I know this is a rhetorical question to Ashley but … did you even bother to read the post in question? Did you even bother to read the page you linked to to see if it's relevant to your organization?

No? Is that because you just did a search for “Vererans Day” and spammed every site that linked to that page? Yes? Do you realize you have two completely different email addresses? No? Is that because you don't care?

Gaaaah!

Update just two hours later …

From

"Ashley Knowles" <outreach@advocatesforhealth.org>

To

"sean" <sean@conman.org>

Subject

Correction - Thank You for Supporting Veterans on boston.conman.org

Date

Wed, 2 Mar 2016 14:15:23 -0800

Hello,

*I'm resending this because my recent e-mail was mistakenly sent through a colleagues account. Apologies if you have received two.

I came across this page of your site http://boston.conman.org/2004/11 and noticed that you are linking …

[ … ]

Thank you,

Ashley Knowles

Outreach Coordinator

outreach@advocatesforhealth.org

Really?

Sigh.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

How hard can it possibly be to find a 10-digit phone number?

More difficult that you could imagine.

As initially designed, “Project: Sippy-Cup” was only to be used in North America. It was also designed such that the MDNs (aka “phone number”—the telephony industry has its fair share of TLAs) would be found in a particular format—a TEL URI. And because we only support numbers in North America, they follow the NANP (this is an example of an ETLA) format for numbers.

Of course, that's the theory. In practice, we are dealing with the Monopolistic Phone Company and well … they don't have to care. So it was with that in mind that I was told to look for MDNs in SIP URIs. Okay, so find a 10-digit number in a TEL or SIP URI. The design specification said that the MDN in the TEL URI would have a leading “+1” and then the MDN. Since SIP URIs were a complete afterthought I figured that any MDNs in a SIP URI would also follow the same format, a leading “+1” and the MDN.

So in mid-January, I get a report that “Project: Sippy-Cup” is failing to handle non-NANP MDNs.

“But we only support NANP MDNs,” I said.

“But international MDNs are failing,” was the reply.

“That can happen in production?” I asked.

“It is happening in production.”

“Excuse me? It's in production?”

“Yes. Has been since mid-December.”

“We're still testing with the OEMs!”

“Did you not get the memo?”

“I failed to get the memo,” I said as I headed back towards my computer.

“I'll send you a few copies.”

Code code code.
Test test test.
Code code code.
Test test test.
Hack hack hack.
Test test test.

Mid-February, it was patched and tested.

But because it was in production (seriously, why did no one tell me?) updates are … complicated. Many meetings need to be held to determine if we need a MOP, even more meetings to determine what to MOP, which what to MOP, when to MOP, who needs to MOP, where to MOP, and why to MOP.

One month later, last night (or rather, very early this morning) to be precise, we could install the fix.

An hour and a half in (for some reason the term “Charlie Foxtrot” comes to mind since we seem to have forgotten to discuss “how to MOP”—I'll skip the “Project: Sippy-Cup” production setup house-of-card details due to the OEM testing that is still on-going) I made the call to abort and roll back. The code I had written was mis-identifying NANP MDNs as non-NANP MDNs because some codepath somewhere else was failing to prefix the MDNs in SIP URIs with a “+1” in some cases.

I swear, why did we even bother with a specification?

Sigh.

Monday, April 11, 2016

She wore a raspberry beret

I was driving when we crossed over into Georgia, so I was not able to take a picture, but let me attempt to describe this surreal scene: picture in your mind a MINI Cooper as the flag car for an oversided vehicle. Now picture in your mind an oversized vehicle filling two lanes of the highway, carrying a swiming pool. Okay, the swimmming pool is empty, but it's still a swimming spool!

So, one of the smallest cars on the road escorting one of the largest oversized vehicles I've seen carrying the last thing I would have imagined being carried. Very odd. Keep up the good work, Georgia.

Other than that, the drive up to Brevard was uneventful. It did take us slightly longer than twelve hours to drive to Brevard this year, but only because of the bumper-to-bumper traffic we encountered just south of Hendersonville that slowed us up for about fifteen minutes.

We're again staying at the Red House Inn and this time, I was able to get our favorite room. And like in previous years, we dumped our bags and headed out for dinner.

[But she did not get her beret at a second hand store.]

Our destination—The Square Root, a high end eating establishment tucked into an alleyway in downtown Brevard. It's one of our favorite places to eat. Well, truth be told, we have a lot of favorite places to eat in Brevard. But it's become somewhat of a tradition to eat our first meal at the Square Root.

After that, a walk back to the Red House Inn where we both collapsed into bed.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

East meets the South

The only downside to eating at The Square Root was that the food was just too rich. Between the Pecan Encrusted Brie (“Delicious Fried Brie served with Granny Smith Apples and Crackers with a Frangelico Praline Sauce”), the house salad with homemade blue cheese dressing, Scallops Saltimbocca (“Pan Seared Scallops atop Smoked Tomato Risotto and Roasted Artichokes. Finished with a Lemon, Caper and Sage Butter and topped with Crispy Prosciutto and Sage”) and the flourless Chocolate Torte (not listed on their menu and more like fudge, but oh so worth it) I had a very uncomfortable night, as sad as that is.

It's a vacation! What good is a vacation if you can't enjoy overindulging in fine gourmet food?

Sigh.

Due to the predicted weather (rain and then more rain) we had already planned on saying in today. Good thing, as I took advantage of some extra sleep to make up for the loss of sleep the previous two days.

[How many hotels have you stayed at with such a porch? Yes, this entire porch is for our use. I tell you, once you find a good bed&breakfast, stay with it.]

By evening it was nice and clear and we were able to take advantage of the private porch to sit and relax for a bit.

We had dinner at The Twin Dragons Grand Buffet, a Chinese buffet in Brevard. It was unlike any other Chinese buffet I've ever been to. You had your standard American Chinese food, like Sweet&Sour Chicken, Mongolian Beef and fried rice, but you also had southern staples like fried chicken, frog legs, corn on the cob and collard greens. But then you also had the (to me at least) the really alien Chinese food like Spicy Baby Octopus (only it wasn't called octopus but look close enough and yes, it was baby octopus).

It wasn't bad (although I did not try the Spicy Baby Octopus), it was just … an odd juxtaposition of food genres that threw me.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Dandelion Whine

[You can make wine from this flower? Really? Then why all the hate?]

It's been years since I've last seen a dandelion, that little cheerful yellow flower that is apparently the bane of suburban lawn owners. And I have to wonder why?

What makes this flower such a bane? They come up, bloom, feed a bunch of bees, seed and then … go away? I don't know really. Growing up, my granddad would rip the suckers right out of the lawn and when that didn't work, pour gallons of caustic chemicals in the vain attempt to rid the lawn of the things even as the neighborhood kids would pluck the fuzzy cotton-headed dandelions and blow hard to send the seeds floating down the street.

I remember asking Bunny a few weeks ago what makes a weed a “weed,” and she answered, “any unwanted plant.” Okay, fair enough. But considering that the “weeds” we get in our yard have these needle-sharp burrs that are a literal pain to remove, I think I'd rather have dandelions in the lawn. At least they don't jam painfully into your fingers, drawing blood.

Extreme bar stools, Brevard Edition

Bunny was thirsty from all the walking about Brevard, so we stopped into Hunters & Gatherers for some liquid refreshment.

[It's not normal for bars to have saddles as bar stools, is it?]

I guess the shop owners figured this would keep the women occupied as the men shopped. Or something like that.

Gluten free sodas are gluten free to a point

So I'm enjoying a lovely beverage at Hunters & Gatherers when I notice something odd on the label:

[I don't care about the wheat content as much as I care about the corn content.]

“Pardon my asking,” I said to the proprietor, “but I thought all soda was gluten free.”

“I would think so too,” said the proprietor. “Perhaps for sweetening? Like stevia?”

“No,” I said. “It's usually corn they use for sweetening.”

“Oh,” said the proprietor, who was doing a search on the Intarwebs, “sodas might be bottled in a shared facility.”

“Okay, that makes sense.”

“And if gluten is less than 20 parts-per-million, it's considered ‘gluten-free.’”

“How about that?”

“Well, the more you know …

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Extreme lawn ornaments part II, Brevard edition

In Brevard, some people use cows as a lawn ornament. But others? A dog marking its territory.

[I think that being anatomically correct is what pushes this over the edge.]

Not only that, but this is in front of Marco Trattoria, an upscale restuarant here in Brevard.

Friday, April 15, 2016

Triple Falls

Today Bunny and I hiked out to Triple Falls. Okay, so it's not much of a hike, being perhaps half a mile from the parking lot.

[Lost? Balderdash! We just have to go ... Um ...]

But it was a steep climb up the trail (marked “easy” on the maps—I'd hate to think of the grade on a “medium” trail) and that still left the Escheresque stairs to the actual falls.

[You might think this is leading down, but these are Esher Stairs, which go up both ways. It was most annoying.]

All one hundred and twelve stairs.

Yes, I counted each one.

But it was worth it.

[A cascade of cascading water along the Little River, an ironic name given that it's not that little. Then again, the New River, also in North Carolina, is not that new, being the oldest river in the world.]

And yes, the hike back to the parking lot was just as grueling.

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Perhaps not so exteme bar stools, Brevard edition

While the sample size of two is small, the fact that of the two bars I've seen in Brevard each has saddles as bar stools.

[Perhaps in Brevard, it is normal to have saddles as bar stools.]

Is this a thing? Did I not get the memo?

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Extreme busking, Charlotte version

Bunny and I are in Charlotte when we come across this guy busking downtown:

[I think he wanted to try out for the role of The Tin Man for the theater production of The Wizard Of Oz.]

Although he was dancing rather than playing an instrument, so I'm not sure if this is actually busking or not.

It's extreme, whatever it is.

Exreme chess sets, Ritz-Carlton edition

Bunny and I ducked into the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Charlotte for a few minutes. Inside, I saw this very abstract, and very large, chess set:

[The Ritz-Carlton spared no expense in sponsoring this abstract chess board.]

I found it nice, but it's one of those things where if you have to ask how much it is, you certainly can't afford it.

The Alton Brown Eat Your Science Tour

Bunny and I were in Charlotte for Alton Brown's Eat Your Science Tour. He wasn't getting any closer to Florida for this tour and Charlotte isn't that far from Brevard (Orlando is farther from Chez Boca than Charlotte is from Brevard).

If anything, this show was better than his previous tour even if in this show he didn't make a pizza in 60 seconds or ice cream in ten seconds. Just two things to keep in mind when seeing this show:

Be on time or you will be viciously mocked by Alton Brown himself;
Even if you don't like bacon, you will like bacon or you will be viciously mocked by Alton Brown, even if you are a fourteen year old girl.

Although, if you are late, just give Alton some whiskey and he'll forgive you.

Again, if you are a fan of Good Eats or of Alton Brown himself, it's worth seeing the show.

Monday, April 18, 2016

The Jungle Book

Bunny and I went to see “The Jungle Book,” the Disney remake of their 1967 animated movie, “The Jungle Book.” Don't be fooled if you think this is all live action—it's not. It's nearly all animated, but the computer animation is quite good throughout the movie.

It follows more the 1967 version than the book, but as a remake, this is darker and quite a bit more violent than the original Disney version—it defintely earns its PG rating (and I'm surprised it didn't get a PG-13—Shere Khan is a villian in this vesion). And just like the original, you get the musical numbers “The Bare Necessities” (which didn't seem that out of place) and “I Wan'na Be Like You” (which … um … didn't quite fit).

All the voice actors were good but … well … when King Louie (not in the book and created by Disney) first appeared in the film, it seemed as if the voice actor was doing an odd impersonation of Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz when it finally dawned on me—it was Christopher Walken, who I think was doing a Christopher Walkenian impression of Marlon Brando doing Colonel Kurtz and finally doing a Christopher Walkenian impression of Christopher Walken.

But aside from that (even as an orangutan, Walken is Walken) it was worth seeing. We both enjoyed the movie.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Driving to China

Bunny had this large china dinner set she wanted to sell, and given that we would be in the neighborhood (for medium values of “neighborhood”) we drove to Replacements, Ltd. in the small town of McLeansville, some three and a half hours from Brevard. It's not a small operation:

[No need to dig to China when there's a metric butt load of china right here.]

And not just limited to plates. They have crystal; they have figurines; they have … lots of stuff.

And for those of you who are not in the “neighborhood,” they ship as well.

Extreme drive-thru, Winston-Salem edition

Bunny and I stopped in Winston-Salem for dinner on the way back to Brevard. Inside the restaurant—

[It's a pan-dimensional drive-thru, which is fine if you're Buckaroo Bonzai. But I'm not, so that's why we didn't notice it at first.]

We didn't realize it was also a drive-thru restaurant. And upon leaving, we realized we should have driven through and not stopped at all (the staff was wonderful, unfortunately, the food wasn't so wonderful).

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Black Dog Salvage

Bunny is a fan of the television show Salvage Dawgs and since we were in “the neighborhood“ (for medium values of “neighborhood”) of Roanoke, VA we figured we would drive on out and check out Black Dog Salvage.

[I think they'll need a bigger rocket if they want to beat Andy Griffith to the moon.]

It's not a bad place if you are into architectural salvage stores. And it's huge. A ton of stuff for sale, from tiles to columns (Corinthian, Ionic and Doric), doors, and even stairways. It's all for sale.

The main cast members were not there as they were out salvaging some more stuff, but Bunny did recognize one person who has appeared on the show.

We had fun.

A sooperseekrit blast from the past

While at Black Dog Salvage I came across this:

[... and the Harmonic Llamas, chanting “Emmit with the hemmit and the shouldama pads.” Only two other people are expected to get this. The rest of you will just have to keep scratching your heads in puzzlement.]

It obviously stands for “Black Dog Salvage” but it caught my attention because it has another meaning to me (yes, this is an inside joke from a long time ago).

Thursday, April 21, 2016

A quiet day on vacation

This is our last day in Brevard and we took it easy. We had lunch with an old friend of mine who lives in town. For dinner, we went to Binion's Roadhouse, a place we liked last time we ate there.

I'm not sure what's going on in North Carolina, but it seems we cannot get a good steak in this state. Ribeye. Medium rare. It shouldn't be that difficult. Tonight, shoe leather—twice! At least the second one had a bit of medium on it.

Sigh.

Tonight we pack and then tomorrow—driving! Lots and lots of driving.

Friday, April 22, 2016

… aaaaaaand we're back!

It's night. It's more a monsoon than a heavy rain. The thunder is deafening. There are lightening bolts slamming into the earth every few seconds. I'm driving in a construction zone. And every other driver out there is an idiot with their hazzard lights blinking.

I'm having way too much fun for the driving conditions. What a blast!

We're home now. The drive was pretty uneventful until Jacksonville. As I was filling up the car, some guy in an unmarked white van tried to sell us frozen steaks (no, really!). But despite the lack of good steaks recently we decline to buy any.

We then hit very heavy traffic through downtown Jacksonville and by the time that cleared up, we were in the middle of a monsoon for the next eighty miles. After that, it was clear skies all the way to Chez Boca.

Now we collapse.

Friday, May 06, 2016

Notes on an overheard conversation at a local BBQ restaurant that plays both types of music—country AND western

“Oh no!”

“What?”

“Now I'm earwormed!”

“With what?”

“Save a horse, ride a cowboy.”

“Wasn't that the plot to ‘Brokeback Mountain?’”

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

This isn't at all about replacing waitrons. Not at all. Nope. Nothing to do with the bottom line or a naked grab at more money. Nope. It's all for the customers' convenience.

One of the things my dad comments on these days is the preponderance of restaurant patrons peering into their smart phones or tablets, ignoring everyone else, which is okay, because everyone else at the table is peering into their smart phones or tablets. Even though they're eating together, they are still eating alone.

One of the things that still gets me is the preponderance of televisions in restaurants. I find them terribly distracting and very hard not to watch. I can somewhat understand a sports bar having them to show sporting games, but McDonalds?. The worse offender I've found is The Flashback Diner which has a television per booth!

Insane!

So what do Bunny and I find tonight at Olive Garden?

[It's the bastard child of a television with the downside of excessive advertising plus a tablet with the downside of pay-to-play click-games with the hassle of a restaurant trying to run an IT department. That it has not ended well, much less ended, is beyond me.]

A Ziosk on every table.

Apparently they've been around for a few years and so far, Bunny and I have managed to avoid the restaurants that have the darned devices.

In theory, it seems like a Good Thing™. You can place orders for drinks and desserts through the device. And you can signal for the server (I presume some sort of signal is sent to the kitchen or the server lounge or something but all we noticed is a red light flashing on top of the unit when we did this) and pay the check (the previous party at our table still owed 7¢—how I do not know). But the incessant advertising for food, drinks and “pay-for-play” games just got to be too much (even though the unit itself was thankfully quiet).

We ended up turning the device to face away from us.

I don't know. It just bugs me on some level. Do we as a nation have the attention span of a rabid ferret—oooooh! Shiny!

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Just how many engineers does it take to solve a simple geometry problem?

Two months later and we're still waiting to install updates to “Project: Sippy-Cup” into production. We were finally given the “okay” this week, but have twice scrubbed the ~~launch~~ deployment because … “reasons.”

Sigh.

So there's very little for us (the Call Processing team at the Ft. Lauderdale Office of The Corporation) to do this week. And because of that, I've started back to work on a small geometry problem that floated around the office some time last year—find “x”:

[Note: it's not to scale. And no, circling the “x” and scribbling “Found it!” is not the answer.]

I can't be that hard, right? All you need to solve it is geometry. You know, the interior angles of a triangle sum to 180°, what constitutes congruent triangles, all that stuff you should have learned in the 10^th grade but have probably forgotten by now.

Um … yeah.

[Sure, ∠CEA ≅ ∠CQB, but where does that get us?]

Fellow cow-orker T didn't solve it (and took a copy home for his son to work on). T2 solved it by using trigonometry. And it took a few hours of hashing it out between myself and R to get a purely geometric solution to it.

Friday, June 10, 2016

Sunspring

What do you think of your historic nomination against human opponents in this contest?

I was pretty excited.
I think I can see the feathers when they release their hearts. It's like a breakdown of the facts. So they should be competent with the fact that they won't be surprised.

What is the future of machine written entertainment?

It's a bit sudden.
I was thinking of the spirit of the men who found me and the children who were all manipulated and full of children. I was worried about my command. I was the scientist of the Holy Ghost.

What's next for you?

Here we go. The staff is divided by the train of the burning machine building with sweat. No one will see your face. The children reach into the furnace, but the light is still slipping to the floor. The world is still embarrassed.
The party is with your staff.
My name is Benjamin.

Via FaceGoogleMyBookPlusSpace, Movie written by AI algorithm turns out to be hilarious and intense | Ars Technica UK

So … is NaMoGenMo far behind?

The actual movie (on the page above) is “eh.” I found it interesting to watch, but that's me. I suspect that most people who aren't into computer generated “art” will find it all that good, or even comprehensible. The “plot” of the movie wasn't necessarily in the screen play—what you see is an interpretation by the director and actors. And how do you interpret a stage movement like “stand in the stars and sit on the floor at the same time”?

I found the article itself more interesting as it talks about the intersection between human and computer generated “art.”

And I think it's hilarious that the AI itself outvoted the other bots voting in the contest. I guess it really wanted to win.

Monday, August 01, 2016

This is a thing?

A mailing list I'm on had this following exchange:

holy crap

Believing this term to be some bit of jargon that I am ignorant of, I googled it. It is marketed as being edible.

And yes … it is edible. And amazing, in the “I am a amazed this even exists” sense of “amazing.”

Holy Crap.

I am at a loss for words.

Thursday, September 22, 2016

The computers … they know! They know! Part I

As appreciation of our hard work, The Corporation decided to treat us (and by “us,” I mean “The Ft. Lauderdale Office Of The Corporation”) to lunch at Tap 42. Wanting to know just where Tap 42 was located, I opened up Google Maps on my smartphone and started to type in the address. I got as far as “1411” when I noticed that the top possible option was “1411 S Andrews Ave Ft. Lauderdale”—the address of Tap 42.

“How?” I asked my office mate and fellow cow-orker T. “How did it know?”

“Well, perhaps Google noticed a flurry of similar queries coming from the same location,” said T.

Plausible I suppose. But I'm not sure how I feel about that. It seems … eerily prescient and disturbing. Almost like Cyber Brother is watching over us.

The computers … they know! They know! Part II

I received an automated call from my bank (a credit union). It was the Credit Card Fraud Dectection Unit asking me to verify a transaction for $1.00 at a gas station on September 22^nd. I had no idea what date it was (turns out—it was earlier today) and I did hit a gas station earlier this week. But gas isn't 7¢/gallon (I mean, I do live in Boca) so I knew it wasn't me.

I declined that transaction and was then informed I should call and talk to a representative to resolve the issue. It turned out there were two transactions today—the one for $1.00 at a Sunshine gas station in Miami, and a second transaction for $0.00 (the representative called it “an authorization for billing”) at a Citgo gas station in Houston, Texas!

Oh my …

A new card is on the way, but again, I find myself a bit uneasy. It's wonderful that my credit union is looking out for fraudulent use of my card, but … it's another set of computers watching over me.

Monday, September 26, 2016

When asked who I think will win the 2016 Election, I reply: “I think America loses.”

So one of our neighbors has put up their yearly Hallowe'en display:

[I am the spectre of Elections Past! You! Who did not vote, caused THIS to pass! Now reap what you do not sow! Ooooooooooooh!]

Never mind it's not even October yet.

Sigh.

But I think our neighbor has made an untintentional political message with this display, as the Trump signs have been out and about for a few months now, and it's lacking a life-sized cardbard cutout of Hillary to truly make this a commentary on the current Presidential Election.

Saturday, October 01, 2016

The Ultimate Tool Cabinet

Bunny and I watched Virtuoso: The Tool Cabinet and Workbench of Henry O. Studley, a documentary about an extraordinary tool cabinet made a century ago.

[This is the type of woodwork I would expect to see in a Gothic Cathedral, which, in its own way, this is. A Gothic Cathedral of tools.]

It's an amazing hand-crafted cabinet, managing to hold 250 tools in several ingenious layers. But in watching the tools being removed, it became clear that while beautiful, it's not the most practical of tool cabinets. It doesn't really conform to Adam Savage's “First Order of Retrievability.” I could live with having to lift up sections to gain access to the tools underneath, but there are some fiddly bits where some tools have to be removed to gain access to others.

The other downside I see to the Studley Tool Cabinet is that it's a perfect fit for the tools you see. Too perfect—any replacements have to be identical or else it won't fit into the tool cabinet. And the documentary even stated that this doesn't hold all of Mr. Studley's tools—there are some that were stored in his workbench.

Still, it's absolutely beautiful and if I had a tool cabinet, I would love to have one just as nice.

Thursday, October 06, 2016

An observation made while looking outside the window

I look outside the window, and all I see is darkness. Must be late, I think and I look to the clock on my computer. “3:30 in the afternoon‽”

Oh yeah … storm shutters.

Monday, October 24, 2016

Notes about an overheard conversation about the finer points of gardening about the house

“Sweetums?”

“Yes?”

“Could you do me a favor?”

“Sure.”

“You know the bougainvillea out front?”

“Um … ”

“The large bush with the purple flowers?”

“Oh, yes. That bougainvillea.”

“I couldn't reach the top branches to trim them off. Could you finish trimming it for me?”

“Sure.”

“The gloves and clipper are on the table saw in the garage.”

“Okay … ow! Ouch! Ow! Ow! XXXX! XXXX! XXXXXXXXX!”

“Everything okay?”

“Why do bougainvilleas need spikes? One just went through my shoe!”

[And this is one of the smaller thorns on the darned things (and it's 3.5cm for those of you who are metrically savvy)]

”Is your foot bleeding?”

“Um … no … ”

“That's good. You won't need a tetanus shot.”

“What? Aaah! Again, why does this bougainvilla need spikes anyway?”

“Well … you know … protection from predators.”

“Predators? What? Here? In Boca? Predators?”

“Yes.”

“What, is a giraffe just going to stroll down the street, see the bougainvillea and think ‘That bougainvillea bush is too spikey to eat. I shall mosey on down the road for less thorny fare.’?”

“You don't see any giraffes around here, do you? And because the giraffes aren't interested in this bush and stay away, that keeps the lions away. Thus, protection from predators.”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Tuesday, November 01, 2016

I should have known better than to look up Nostradamus on the Intarwebs …

Ah, November 1^st! Time once again for National Novel Generation Month.

I don't have a decent idea for this month. I've already done the Markov Chain, and the two chatbots fighting it out (which included writing a partial clone of MS-DOS to run one of the participants). Where do I go from there?

A quick idea I had was a cross of Time Cube with the prophecies of Nostradamus. The downside is that Time Cube already reads like a computer generated conspiracy rant and Nostraudamus … no … just no …

Sigh.

I always have my fall back of English As She Is Spoke approach if nothing else comes up.

Wednesday, November 02, 2016

What? Me, worry?

The most important presidential election in American history was the fourth presidential election. Against this there can be no argument.

The election of 1860 resulted in a four-year referendum where the surrogates of the winner and his opponents gathered together in large groups and fired muskets at each other. The election of 1876 undid much of the great work of that four-year referendum and consigned many of the subjects of that referendum and their offspring to 90 years of not being able to enjoy the fruits of that particular hard-won victory.

The election of 1800 was still more important.

The election of 1932 was an existential question about to what extent the federal government should step in to assist in times of economic crisis. The outcome of that election gave us nothing less than the New Deal. The New Deal, in turn, gave us Glass-Steagall, the FDIC, the SEC, Social Security, legalized unions, took us off the gold standard, gave us a ton of organizations that functioned as the government giving people money for shit, and probably did a bunch of other stuff I’m totally forgetting.

Oh, hell, it even ended prohibition, improbably enough.

The election of 1800 was still more important.

The election of 1800 was nothing less than a referendum on the question, “Do we actually want to do this democracy thing anymore?”

The Election of 1800 Was Way More Important Than This One

With the election a week away, it's important to keep perspective. This isn't the end of America. We're still here after Bush II. We're still here after Obama and if Congress (who's approval rating is still lower than any of the Presidential Candidates, by the way) would step up and do their job instead of ceding power to the President, we could sleep easier at night knowing that the septuagenarian reptilian criminal about to take office won't do much damage.

It's also important to keep in mind that no matter how low this election campaign has been, there have been worse.

Tuesday, November 08, 2016

It's really just turned into one long, ever extending, dark national nightmare by now

Ah, Election Day! The end of our long, dark, national nightmare is finally over! We now can look forward to a short, dark, national nightmare until January 20^th, quickly followed by a very long, dark, four year long ~~national nightmare~~ election season leading up to Election Night 2020! Woo hoo!

Kidding aside, I would love to see the following changes to our national elections to spare us the “national nightmare” feel:

Limit Presidential campaigns to the year of election only.

No more two year (or even four year) election cycles. There is no reason for a Presidential election requiring more than eleven months to run (and even there, I'me being generous). Personally, I'd like for it to be even shorter, but I will concede that there should be some time prior to the Conventions.

But yes, eleven months, tops. Starts in January, ends second Tuesday of November.
No pre-results until all polling stations across the entire country have closed.

And yes, if that means results aren't announced until 2:00 am Eastern due to Alaska and Hawaii, then so be it. It must really suck to be voting for President in those two states, because by the time the voting stops there, the Main Stream Media has pretty much already called (and possibly swayed) the results.

This should also put an end to exit polls. We don't need to know who's elected this instant! We can wait a day. I mean, how did we survive Presidential elections a hundred years ago?

Oh, and any TV or radio station that announce results early will have their broadcasting license revoked by the FCC. Make it really hurt for violators.
The Electoral College needs to be addressed.

The current system (48 out of 50 states) of “winner take all” is not good. Outside of abolishing it (requiring a Constitutional Amendment and the mess that takes) there are two methods I see to make it a bit better:
1. Apportion electoral votes per popular vote in the state. That means, if one candidate gets 60% of the popular vote in a state, that candidate will get 60% of that state's electoral votes. This currently happens in two states (Nebraska and Maine).
2. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is another solution (whereby the states will award their electoral votes to the overall winner of the national popular vote), but it's one I would only feel good about if all states followed this and not just enough states to give 270 electoral votes.
Or, you know, we could keep the current system, as hated as it is.
Congress could grow a spine and claw back Executive (President) overreach.

Congress has over time let the Executive Branch take more and more power. If Congress grew a backbone and learned to say “No” then the Office of the President wouldn't be quite so powerful as it is today. Congress write the law, not the President. Then it would matter a bit less who was President, like a goat for instance.
Ban the 24-hour news cycle.

Not strictly necessary it is something I wish for though.

And the lack of a 24-hour news cycle could only help.

A wish list for sure. But it would be nice not to have to endure a multiyear national nightmare every four years.

Presidential Predictions II

A decade ago, I linked to An Algorithm for Determining the Winners of U.S. Presidential Elections and I thought it might be interesting to see if it still has predictive power (whether that's a Good Idea™ or a Really Bad Idea™ remains to be seen).

So, here we go:

Presidential electability of the candidates for President in 2016
Ticket	President	Representative	Governor	Other	Total
Trump/Pence	0/0	0/10	0/3	-110 (Divorced)/-	-97
Clinton/Kaine	0/0	0/0	0/4	-110 (Lobbying Organization)/-	-106

Looks like we get the Howling Monkey by 9 points!

Saturday, November 26, 2016

And here I thought Saint Nicholas was supposed to be larger than life

Bunny and I went shopping for a Christmas tree, and at the tree lot, I saw this:

[You must be at least this high to buy a Christmas Tree. Really? Height restrictions on purchasing a Christmas Tree?]

I was a bit surprised. I would have thought Kris Kringle to be taller, to tell the truth. Five and a half feet? That's pretty short for a ~~Storm Trooper~~ Santa Claus.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

“I find the lack of six-fold symmetry disturbing”

I arrive to my office at work only to find some seasonal decorations have been hung about the room. On the window was this “snowflake”:

[This mutant red snowflake is an abomination! An Abomination I say!]

I know of no snowflake that is red (yellow yes, but not red) nor has five-fold symmetry. I have to wonder if the person who hung this has ever seen snow …

Thursday, Debtember 01, 2016

Meow meow meow meow …

Ah, Debtember 1^st! Time once again for missing National Novel Generation Month.

I never did come up with decent idea for a generated novel. And I never did get around to doing that English As She Is Spoke idea. I could have written a program to write the word “meow” 50,000 times, and while it's within the letter of the rules it does feel like cheating. Then again, this year's submissions were not up to the caliber of last year's submissions. Perhaps the idea of computer generated novels has run its course? Who knows?

There's always next year.

Saturday, Debtember 17, 2016

Really, POSIX? Really? memset() isn't async-signal-safe? How is it not safe? … oh … that's why

Just because, I found myself rewriting some code that dumps memory. The current version is too limiting because it only dumps to a file, and there have been several times I've wanted to dump memory to something other than a file, like to syslog() (for instance, my crashreport() function which dumps some memory as part of its report).

So I got the new code written, and the core of it is “async-signal-safe.” This is important because functions that are not async-signal-safe can not be called from a signal handler (the cause of my hardest-to-find bug yet). I got to the point where I needed to add some padding to the output and the easiest way to do that is to call memset().

Now a curious thing about memset()—if you check the list of async-signal-safe functions one can call, you will not find memset() among the listed functions. Which is odd, because the function itself does very little, little more than:

void memset(void *s,int c,size_t n)
{
  unsigned char *m = s;

  while(n--)
    *m++ = c;

  return s;
}

This isn't like malloc(), which could be interrupted as it's working and leave critical data structures in an indeterminate state such that a subsequent call to malloc() from within the signal handler could blow up. No, it's self contained and a call to memset() won't interfere with an already interrupted call to memset(). It's curious that memset() isn't considered async-signal-safe (along with memcpy(), memmove() and strcpy()). It just doesn't make sense.

Until it does.

Here's the upshot: since memset() is a standard C function, a C compiler is free to do anything it wants as long as the end result is the same—the memory is set to a given value. So, assuming a standard Intel CPU, it can compile this:

int array[2];
memset(array,0,sizeof(array));

into the following assembly language:

	xor	eax,eax		; set EAX to 0
	mov	[array],eax	; zero out array[0]
	mov	[array+4],eax	; zero out array[1]

or (and this is getting close to the issue at hand):

int array[1000];
memset(array,0,sizeof(array));

can be compiled into

	mov	edi,array	; point to array
	mov	ecx,1000	; there are 1000 entries
	xor	eax,eax		; each being set to 0
	rep	stosd		; now do it

The problem is memmove(), which can handle copying memory from overlapping regions. Typically, you just copy memory from low memory to high but when the regions overlap, you can't do that. Instead, you have to copy from high memory to low. Again, the Intel CPU can deal. So, code like:

int array[1000];
memmove(&array[100],&array[0],sizeof(int) * 900);

could turn into:

	mov	esi,array + 999 * 4	; point to last element in array
	mov	edi,array +  99 * 4	; point to final destination in array
	mov	ecx,900			; this many integers
	std				; !!! make sure we copy from high to low
					; HERE BE DRAGONS!
	rep	movsd			; copy data
	cld				; clear direction flag

And the issue shows itself. There's a flag in the Intel CPU that tells it which way to copy memory. If the flag is not set, then any memory copy (or memory setting) goes from low to high (the index registers ESI and EDI are incremented); otherwise if the flag is set, then any memory copy (or memory setting) goes from high to low (the index registers are decremented). Generally, the flag is usually cleared except for the few cases where it's required to be set. After the STD instruction is executed but prior to the CLD instruction being executed, if a signal is delivered to the program, the kernel will interrupt the program and call a signal handler. And if in the signal handler, memset() is called, the code is probably expecting the direction flag to not be set, so the memset() code will now run in the reverse direction.

The real issue here is that the program state (including the direction flag) is saved upon entering the kernel. When the kernel transitions back to usercode, that state is then restored. The signal handler isn't technically a thread (although it executes asynchronously as a thread) so it doesn't have its own state (although in POSIX, a signal handler can have its own stack, but that's entirely optional and I'm digressing). You could argue that a program (technically a process or thread) could have two states—a normal state and a signal handler state, but the problem there is that signal handlers can be interrupted by yet another signal handler and the issue rears its ugly head yet again.

I couldn't find any current information about this problem (and where is the bug? Is it in the compiler? The operating system? The standards bodies?) and so alas, even a simple function like memset() might not be async-signal-safe.

Sigh.

Update on January 3^rd, 2017

Wednesday, Debtember 21, 2016

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Bunny and I went to see “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”. Unlike the other Star Wars movies, there's no text crawl at the beginning (it surprised me). You get the Lucas Film logo, the words “Star Wars” and the standard “A long long time ago in a galaxy far away” but no text crawl. I think this is intentional as it's set in the same universe but outside the main story line we know and love.

It's actually another another prequel, taking place just a day or two prior to the 1977 release of “Star Wars” (or “Star Wars: A New Hope” if you want to be pedantic) and concerns itself with the rebels aquiring the plans to the Death Star (and in the process, explains the flaw that ended up destroying it).

Visually, the movie is stunning (like all Star Wars movies), but I found the first half a bit slow moving and the music absolutely forgettable—vaguely … Star Warsish … but … not? Forest Whitaker was wasted, as far as I'm concerned, as we got none of his character's backstory, or the backstory between his character and the main character Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones). What we do learn is told to us, not shown.

Unfortunately, most of the characters are not given any backstory. It's a shame, especially given Chirrut Îmwe (played by Donnie Yen), a blind monk who believes in the Force (and is not a Jedi), and his friend Baze Malbus (played by Wen Jiang) a large gun toting soldier. These are fantastic characters, but again, not much is said about them.

Now, the second half? Once the actual plot kicks in? Oh my God! It's totally worth slugging through the first half. The battle to extract the Death Star plans is incredible. And dark. Make no mistake, this is a “war film” that just happens to be set in the Star Wars Universe. It's the darkest Star Wars movie yet (and mild spoilers if you can read between the lines and think a bit about why we never heard about these characters before).

Darth Vader does make an appearance. He's in the movie maybe a total of three minutes. The first minute (about half way through) is menancing. His final two minutes? This is a Sith Lord. Someone you do not want to meet, period. This is the monster we're told about in the other movies.

So yes, it's worth seeing. Come for the battle. Stay for Darth Vader. And just be glad he's a fictional character.

Notes on an overheard conversation while in a car listening to Christmas music

♫You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town♫

“Oh, it's Pat Boone!”

“Sounds like it was prior to his heavy metal album.”

“What?”

“Yes. Heavy metal album.”

“Are you yanking my chain again?”

“Nope. Look it up.”

“Okay, I will … Pat Boone … heavy metal … I hate you.”

Saturday, Debtember 24, 2016

Notes on an overheard conversation about an unfortunate event

“Oh dear!”

“What?”

“A 91 year old man was tased by police.”

“Oh man … ”

“And he had Alzheimer's.”

“Well, at least he won't remember it.”

“You are bad! Bad! No Christmas cookies for you!”

Monday, Debtember 26, 2016

Kris Kringle is down! I repeat, Kris Kringle is down!

I was talking with Bunny when my hand came down and knocked one of the many Santas she had on display. We both saw it falling, and while the entire event played out in slow motion, with seconds stretching out to minutes, there was nothing we could do to move fast enough save Santa from crashing onto the floor.

His left leg snapped off at the knee, while his right leg shattered into splintered shards across the floor.

Bunny said not to worry about it, accidents happen. But I felt bad about breaking Santa. Who wants to break Santa?

So I spent the next few hours putting the 3-D jigsaw puzzle of a leg back together again. It took time because I had to not only figure out what piece went where, but glue the piece in, and wait until it dried hard enough to handle for the next piece.

[“Yeah, I still can't feel muh legs, but thanks anyway!”]

And there, good as new. Nothing a little black paint can't hide.

Thursday, Debtember 29, 2016

Notes on an overheard conversation while in a car listening to Christmas music, part II

[Music is playing on the car radio]

♫Sleigh bells ring
are you listening
in the lane
snow is glistening
A beautiful sight
we're happy tonight
walking in a winter wonderland♫

“Needs more cowbell.”

Saturday, Debtember 31, 2016

A critical obituary for a rebel general

Leia Organa, the politician and revolutionary who led the defeat of the Galactic Empire, died after a short illness. She was 60 years old. Hers was a life laced with controversy concerning everything from her tactics to her very ancestry, but her intelligence, commitment to the Republican cause, and place at the heart of the Rebellion, and later the Resistance against Neo-Imperialism, remains the indisputable core of her legacy.

Via inks, Leia Organa: A Critical Obituary – you're always being judged

Sigh … as if 2016 wasn't bad enough with the death of Carrie Fisher. Now you have to take Princess Leia as well?

Good riddance, 2016!