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"I'm not alone with my thoughts. They're alone with me."
This came to me at the memorial service for the mother of an old friend, during the music that opened the ceremony. Most of the people in the pews around me were in groups, talking quietly amongst themselves.
This came to me at the memorial service for the mother of an old friend, during the music that opened the ceremony. Most of the people in the pews around me were in groups, talking quietly amongst themselves.
Inch by inch
Mar. 16th, 2025 01:14 pmYesterday, I happened to listen to a recording of the "Garden Song" by David Mallett, whose chorus is (with the usual variations via the folk-music process):
Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
All I need is a rake and a hoe
Someone bless these seeds I sow
Someone warm them from below
And as always when I hear that song, I was struck by the awareness that the Someone who's most noted for warming things "from below" is Someone you don't want to invoke. (See also: the Evil bananas in OotS.)
Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
All I need is a rake and a hoe
And a piece of fertile ground
Inch by inch, row by rowSomeone bless these seeds I sow
Someone warm them from below
'Til the rain comes tumbling down
And as always when I hear that song, I was struck by the awareness that the Someone who's most noted for warming things "from below" is Someone you don't want to invoke. (See also: the Evil bananas in OotS.)
Voter privacy failure
Feb. 27th, 2025 04:15 pmI just voted in the provincial election. There was a concerning incident.
The way it's supposed to work is that one brings one's marked ballot in a privacy sleeve to the person who's running the ballot scanner. That person inserts the ballot-in-sleeve part way into a slot in the scanner. The scanner plucks the ballot out of the sleeve. The operator then puts the sleeve away, I assume for reuse.
The operator was having trouble getting the scanner to take in the ballots. It looked like an alignment problem: the ballot-in-sleeve had to be inserted quite precisely, or the scanner would pull the ballot in part way, then go into reverse and push the ballot out again. The operator knew that this was a recurring problem. But she took the sleeve away before the ballot had been processed, so when the scanner went into reverse, my ballot was almost completely exposed to view. My vote was visible to the operator. She put the ballot back into the sleeve and went through the process again, and after a couple more tries, the job was completed.
I reported the problem to the polling-place supervisor. She said that she would make an incident report. She assured me that only the person who'd issued the ballot to me knew my name, and that the machine operator had no way to connect my identity with my vote. I pointed out that if she'd already known me personally, that wouldn't help. The problem wouldn't have occurred at all if only she'd waited to take the sleeve away until the ballot had been fully processed. It was while I was walking home that it occurred to me that I am, in my own way, fairly distinctive. People tend to remember me. There aren't a lot of really short men walking around wearing octopus hats.
The way it's supposed to work is that one brings one's marked ballot in a privacy sleeve to the person who's running the ballot scanner. That person inserts the ballot-in-sleeve part way into a slot in the scanner. The scanner plucks the ballot out of the sleeve. The operator then puts the sleeve away, I assume for reuse.
The operator was having trouble getting the scanner to take in the ballots. It looked like an alignment problem: the ballot-in-sleeve had to be inserted quite precisely, or the scanner would pull the ballot in part way, then go into reverse and push the ballot out again. The operator knew that this was a recurring problem. But she took the sleeve away before the ballot had been processed, so when the scanner went into reverse, my ballot was almost completely exposed to view. My vote was visible to the operator. She put the ballot back into the sleeve and went through the process again, and after a couple more tries, the job was completed.
I reported the problem to the polling-place supervisor. She said that she would make an incident report. She assured me that only the person who'd issued the ballot to me knew my name, and that the machine operator had no way to connect my identity with my vote. I pointed out that if she'd already known me personally, that wouldn't help. The problem wouldn't have occurred at all if only she'd waited to take the sleeve away until the ballot had been fully processed. It was while I was walking home that it occurred to me that I am, in my own way, fairly distinctive. People tend to remember me. There aren't a lot of really short men walking around wearing octopus hats.
Medicare phone spam
Feb. 26th, 2025 03:34 pmLately I've been getting a lot of phone spam regarding supplemental coverage for Medicare Part A and B. The calls are made using spoofed caller ID, all beginning with the 613 area code which is designated for the Ottawa and Kingston regions. (There are a couple of other area codes used in Ottawa: 343 and 753. These were added in recent decades.)
What makes this a bit baffling is that "Medicare Part A and B" is strictly American. Virtually nobody in area code 613 will have anything to do with it. We can't use supplemental coverage for it. And the phone spam doesn't begin with a recorded message along the lines of "press 1 to speak to an agent" to at least try to reduce wasted time on the part of the live (?) humans; when one picks up the phone, the call goes directly to an agent. The callers all have strong Indian or Pakistani accents, of course, and claim to have common European-origin names. The latter is, presumably, to make them more comfortable for the senior citizens who are the primary intended victims of the scam.
I suppose it's possible that offering an insurance policy that cannot possibly be of benefit to the victim, even in theory, is one way of filtering the calls to people who are especially vulnerable? Or that their auto-dialler just calls every findable 10-digit number and assumes that it's American?
The callers are remarkably resistant to hanging up when I point out, at length, that their job is to hurt people who are old and sick, that they prey upon vulnerable citizens, that they are thugs, that they should seek counseling for their sociopathic tendencies, etc. In a calm voice and using those words. I sometimes wonder if their entire point is to keep me talking and to annoy me, rather than to try to get some benefit for themselves.
What makes this a bit baffling is that "Medicare Part A and B" is strictly American. Virtually nobody in area code 613 will have anything to do with it. We can't use supplemental coverage for it. And the phone spam doesn't begin with a recorded message along the lines of "press 1 to speak to an agent" to at least try to reduce wasted time on the part of the live (?) humans; when one picks up the phone, the call goes directly to an agent. The callers all have strong Indian or Pakistani accents, of course, and claim to have common European-origin names. The latter is, presumably, to make them more comfortable for the senior citizens who are the primary intended victims of the scam.
I suppose it's possible that offering an insurance policy that cannot possibly be of benefit to the victim, even in theory, is one way of filtering the calls to people who are especially vulnerable? Or that their auto-dialler just calls every findable 10-digit number and assumes that it's American?
The callers are remarkably resistant to hanging up when I point out, at length, that their job is to hurt people who are old and sick, that they prey upon vulnerable citizens, that they are thugs, that they should seek counseling for their sociopathic tendencies, etc. In a calm voice and using those words. I sometimes wonder if their entire point is to keep me talking and to annoy me, rather than to try to get some benefit for themselves.
Conservative sleaze
Feb. 22nd, 2025 02:57 pmMy cell phone is new enough, and little enough used, that I have thus far received only three spam messages. The second and third were both from Doug Ford, asking for my support. Different phone numbers, presumably to avoid being blocked. This time, I replied, calling him/them out for the sleazy practice. And told him to go join his family... specifically Rob.
A couple of hours ago, a canvasser for the local federal PC candidate was at my door. We aren't even in an election yet! I told him that both I and my wife struggle daily with the long-term effects of the Conservatives' policies on our social welfare system. That they are evil. I don't know if it made any lasting impression on him, but I can hope. I was in my bathrobe and looked haggard, from an extremely late night with the worst neuropathic pain that I can remember experiencing. It felt like someone kept jabbing a large needle into my upper left thigh, and using a taser on my lower right thigh about once per minute, for hours. I wouldn't have had so much essentially-permanent nerve damage if there hadn't been multiple delays in the surgery, resulting from hospital wards being temporarily closed because of (1) financial shortfalls, and (2) too few doctors and nurses.
A couple of hours ago, a canvasser for the local federal PC candidate was at my door. We aren't even in an election yet! I told him that both I and my wife struggle daily with the long-term effects of the Conservatives' policies on our social welfare system. That they are evil. I don't know if it made any lasting impression on him, but I can hope. I was in my bathrobe and looked haggard, from an extremely late night with the worst neuropathic pain that I can remember experiencing. It felt like someone kept jabbing a large needle into my upper left thigh, and using a taser on my lower right thigh about once per minute, for hours. I wouldn't have had so much essentially-permanent nerve damage if there hadn't been multiple delays in the surgery, resulting from hospital wards being temporarily closed because of (1) financial shortfalls, and (2) too few doctors and nurses.
Game of Thrones, Season 9
Feb. 4th, 2025 04:06 pmThe survivors of season 8 discover a portal to the Mirror Universe, and meet their evil-ler counterparts.
... Courtesy of my not-quite-sleeping brain this morning. Which actually thought it was only season 3, but who's counting?
... Courtesy of my not-quite-sleeping brain this morning. Which actually thought it was only season 3, but who's counting?
Taxi monopoly
Jan. 2nd, 2025 08:28 pmI.--- is in hospital, and doing poorly. Since I'm burned out from a couple of nights of terrible sleep, I put together a package of items she needs from home, and tried to arrange a taxi to deliver it to her hospital room. This is something that we've done many times before. But this evening, the dispatcher I reached at West Way had trouble taking down the address of our house, and when I told him that I needed to have the package taken to the hospital room, went away for a few seconds, then told me that it couldn't be done. I told him that they'd done it many times before, and he told me that it was impossible. I asked him to pass my call over to someone else, and he told me that he couldn't... that the only way for me to do that was to call back.
So I hung up, waited a few seconds, and called again. Got the same guy. Same routine. Hung up.
Waited a couple of minutes, called again, and got the same guy. I tried again to have him transfer me, and he told me that he couldn't. So I hung up.
We usually work with West Way; they're based in our end of Ottawa and the drivers are generally good. But at this point, it was time to try something else. I called Capital Taxi. And got the same guy.
Blue Line is the same company as Capital.
All of the major taxi companies in the city seem to be going through the same one call agent this evening. Who insists that they can't do a thing that they've done many times before.
So I hung up, waited a few seconds, and called again. Got the same guy. Same routine. Hung up.
Waited a couple of minutes, called again, and got the same guy. I tried again to have him transfer me, and he told me that he couldn't. So I hung up.
We usually work with West Way; they're based in our end of Ottawa and the drivers are generally good. But at this point, it was time to try something else. I called Capital Taxi. And got the same guy.
Blue Line is the same company as Capital.
All of the major taxi companies in the city seem to be going through the same one call agent this evening. Who insists that they can't do a thing that they've done many times before.
Face masks and SF armour
Dec. 14th, 2024 11:40 amOne of the things I find most irksome about wearing a face mask is that it impairs communication of emotion via facial expression.
It's a similar problem to that of costume design for things like space suits and body armour in SF visual media. It's important to have the actors' faces well-lit and visible from the outside, so the audience can see them. But realistically, practical protective gear for the face and head would have no illumination directed at one's face apart from the incidental lighting from in-helmet displays. Light on one's face is likely to cause internal reflections and impair one's vision, and that's more important than people around one being able to see one's face. A large area of transparent material is likely to provide less protection than the equivalent mass/thickness of other material, as well as leaving the occupant vulnerable to being blinded by bright light outside. (Assuming that there isn't something like Trek's "transparent aluminum", of course, but there's a plausibility gap there.)
But I've thought of a possible practical solution, for fiction at least. Have the helmet completely opaque, with the occupant seeing via displays, and have the occupant's facial expressions mirrored to the surface via display material. It could be simplified, something like a caricature; the occupant could make artistic choices regarding some of the details. When the occupant smiles or frowns, the helmet face "smiles" or "frowns", and so on. It's a feature that could be turned off or on, depending on the situation. In combat, one might not want the opponents to see one's "face". It could even be set up such that a person's helmet display generates "facial expressions" and overlays them on their views of their comrades, based on each person's helmet transmitting the expression data to all the others. From outside the armour, one sees blank heads; from inside, on the visual monitors, one would see faces. It would be a little bit tricky to convey to the audience, but not terribly hard, and it could be used to great visual effect if it were done right. On the command "faces off", everyone in the group is suddenly transformed from having expressive caricatures to having blank heads.
It's a similar problem to that of costume design for things like space suits and body armour in SF visual media. It's important to have the actors' faces well-lit and visible from the outside, so the audience can see them. But realistically, practical protective gear for the face and head would have no illumination directed at one's face apart from the incidental lighting from in-helmet displays. Light on one's face is likely to cause internal reflections and impair one's vision, and that's more important than people around one being able to see one's face. A large area of transparent material is likely to provide less protection than the equivalent mass/thickness of other material, as well as leaving the occupant vulnerable to being blinded by bright light outside. (Assuming that there isn't something like Trek's "transparent aluminum", of course, but there's a plausibility gap there.)
But I've thought of a possible practical solution, for fiction at least. Have the helmet completely opaque, with the occupant seeing via displays, and have the occupant's facial expressions mirrored to the surface via display material. It could be simplified, something like a caricature; the occupant could make artistic choices regarding some of the details. When the occupant smiles or frowns, the helmet face "smiles" or "frowns", and so on. It's a feature that could be turned off or on, depending on the situation. In combat, one might not want the opponents to see one's "face". It could even be set up such that a person's helmet display generates "facial expressions" and overlays them on their views of their comrades, based on each person's helmet transmitting the expression data to all the others. From outside the armour, one sees blank heads; from inside, on the visual monitors, one would see faces. It would be a little bit tricky to convey to the audience, but not terribly hard, and it could be used to great visual effect if it were done right. On the command "faces off", everyone in the group is suddenly transformed from having expressive caricatures to having blank heads.
Phone "psychics"
Oct. 28th, 2024 03:12 pmI just spent literally 3 minutes berating a phone "astrologer" and "psychic" for committing fraud and stealing from gullible people. (If she had any real psychic talent, she wouldn't have called me. Or, arguably, could have opened the call by telling me something that only a real psychic would know. "The [X] you spent so much time searching for last night... it is located in [Y].") Every time I took a breath, she started to try to talk again, so I went off again. It took her that long to hang up.
Apparently she's also a masochist.
The Hundred and One Dalmatians... racist?
Oct. 6th, 2024 06:07 pmI recently ran across a review which compared the original Dodie Smith book The Hundred and One Dalmations with the 1961 Disney animated adaptation, One Hundred and One Dalmatians. It noted that the original book had some extremely racist comments, referring to "sneaky awful black-eyed gipsies". (This is in chapter 14 of the book.)
But my copy of the book One Hundred and One Dalmatians (with the altered title, and an image from the Disney movie on the cover) doesn't have that. The worst comment that my book makes is that "gipsies sometimes stole valuable dogs" And the gipsies do indeed try to capture the dogs.
My guess is that the book was tweaked a bit for the post-Disney publication. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a copy of the book that was published pre-1961. The copies at archive.org are no longer available; the passages available in Google Books don't include that chapter. Interlibrary loan was unsuccessful — although I found a library that had it in Kingston (relatively close to Ottawa), the library then removed the book from their catalogue. I guess they discovered that the book was missing from their collection when they tried to find it for me.
Do any of you have a pre-Disney copy of the book? I'm interested in comparing the two book versions.
But my copy of the book One Hundred and One Dalmatians (with the altered title, and an image from the Disney movie on the cover) doesn't have that. The worst comment that my book makes is that "gipsies sometimes stole valuable dogs" And the gipsies do indeed try to capture the dogs.
My guess is that the book was tweaked a bit for the post-Disney publication. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a copy of the book that was published pre-1961. The copies at archive.org are no longer available; the passages available in Google Books don't include that chapter. Interlibrary loan was unsuccessful — although I found a library that had it in Kingston (relatively close to Ottawa), the library then removed the book from their catalogue. I guess they discovered that the book was missing from their collection when they tried to find it for me.
Do any of you have a pre-Disney copy of the book? I'm interested in comparing the two book versions.
Politeness
Oct. 1st, 2024 11:34 pmThere is a popular myth that Canadians are invariably polite.
Late this afternoon, while I was running my groceries through the self-scan at the grocery store, I overheard a couple of guys attempting to chat up the young woman who was overseeing the area. "What's your name? ... That's a nice name..." I kind of rolled my eyes: a couple of skeevy assholes.
Then they got into the Jesus-y stuff. About Good and Evil, and the need for being Saved, and how one of them had had a near-death experience, and what happened after death, and ... They were clearly taking their time about doing their check-out. And at about the 4-minute mark, I turned around and said, "You know, proselytizing at someone who's forced to listen to you is kind of rude."
They stopped. "What?"
"Proselytizing at someone who's forced to listen to you is kind of rude. She has to stand there. She can't leave while you talk. You're being rude."
"Actually, you're the one who's being rude." "Yeah, we weren't talking to you." I just rolled my eyes and got back to packing up my groceries.
After another minute or so, they left, with a bit more stuff about how Jesus loved her. And me.
Part of what I don't get is how they think that that kind of behaviour is good, and right, and effective. Pushing your political or religious views on someone who is literally constrained from walking away or voicing strong disagreement is not a good way of bringing someone to your point of view. It makes them think that you, and your views, are odious. I don't know if the store has signs posted about on-site soliciting being prohibited, but I doubt that these asses would consider what they do to be soliciting.
Late this afternoon, while I was running my groceries through the self-scan at the grocery store, I overheard a couple of guys attempting to chat up the young woman who was overseeing the area. "What's your name? ... That's a nice name..." I kind of rolled my eyes: a couple of skeevy assholes.
Then they got into the Jesus-y stuff. About Good and Evil, and the need for being Saved, and how one of them had had a near-death experience, and what happened after death, and ... They were clearly taking their time about doing their check-out. And at about the 4-minute mark, I turned around and said, "You know, proselytizing at someone who's forced to listen to you is kind of rude."
They stopped. "What?"
"Proselytizing at someone who's forced to listen to you is kind of rude. She has to stand there. She can't leave while you talk. You're being rude."
"Actually, you're the one who's being rude." "Yeah, we weren't talking to you." I just rolled my eyes and got back to packing up my groceries.
After another minute or so, they left, with a bit more stuff about how Jesus loved her. And me.
Part of what I don't get is how they think that that kind of behaviour is good, and right, and effective. Pushing your political or religious views on someone who is literally constrained from walking away or voicing strong disagreement is not a good way of bringing someone to your point of view. It makes them think that you, and your views, are odious. I don't know if the store has signs posted about on-site soliciting being prohibited, but I doubt that these asses would consider what they do to be soliciting.
Life hack: powder scoops
Aug. 24th, 2024 03:18 pmI---- goes through a lot of protein powder as a supplement to her diet. The powder is generally measured with plastic scoops that are included in the product canisters. But during shipping, a scoop often ends up somewhere in the middle of the canister, a bit of a hassle to find and dig out.
I just realized that this problem can be solved by holding the closed canister upright and shaking it up and down a few times. The "Brazil nut effect" brings the scoop to the top of the canister's contents.
I just realized that this problem can be solved by holding the closed canister upright and shaking it up and down a few times. The "Brazil nut effect" brings the scoop to the top of the canister's contents.
"Let’s give votes to all children in this country, but let’s give control over those votes to the parents of those children. When you go to the polls in this country as a parent, you should have more power — you should have more of an ability to speak your voice in our democratic republic — than people who don’t have kids. Let’s face the consequences and the reality: If you don’t have as much of an investment in the future of this country, maybe you shouldn’t get nearly the same voice. Of course, part and parcel with this is that convicted felons would have to lose their children."
Caveat emptor
Jun. 4th, 2024 11:29 amYesterday's spam included an offer of "Electric Trump Lighters". In the first place, of course, one should never buy from spammers, or have any transaction with them that provides them with a benefit. In the second place, Secret Service or other security personnel would almost certainly prevent one from putting such a device to its proper use.
SovCits in Court
Apr. 10th, 2024 12:56 am"Sovereign citizens" in court often claim that the court doesn't have jurisdiction over them. Commenters — some of whom really should know better — sometimes ask why, if they really believe that the court lacks jurisdiction, they are showing up at all. "If I didn't think the court had jurisdiction over me, I'd just stay home."
It's possible to be so delusional as to think that the court lacks jurisdiction, but not so delusional as to think that the court doesn't have the power of the state to use / abuse to compel attendance. Delusional enough to swallow whatever SovCit creed is in play, whole, but not so delusional as to fail to grasp that the consequences of not showing up would be dire and should be avoided. Failure to appear is often a crime in itself.
The proper way to contest jurisdiction is to bring it up, in court, per the defined protocols. The craziness lies in abusing those protocols, in using bogus arguments based on obviously-flawed premises, and in trying to argue the same points repeatedly after the judge has made a ruling.
It's possible to be so delusional as to think that the court lacks jurisdiction, but not so delusional as to think that the court doesn't have the power of the state to use / abuse to compel attendance. Delusional enough to swallow whatever SovCit creed is in play, whole, but not so delusional as to fail to grasp that the consequences of not showing up would be dire and should be avoided. Failure to appear is often a crime in itself.
The proper way to contest jurisdiction is to bring it up, in court, per the defined protocols. The craziness lies in abusing those protocols, in using bogus arguments based on obviously-flawed premises, and in trying to argue the same points repeatedly after the judge has made a ruling.
Vegetarian Food Traps
Mar. 30th, 2024 08:06 pmVenus Fly Traps are quite interesting plants, with a number of evolutionary adaptations that allow them to live in an environment that's deficient in the nutrients needed for plants to thrive. This comes at some cost in adaptability to other environments. Websites and videos created by enthusiasts explain the VFTs' need for pure water, even distilled water, rather than tap water or any other water that contains dissolved minerals or salts. They need to grow in something like sphagnum moss, which doesn't decompose quickly even if it's kept moist, and has almost no nutrients.
( The experiment... )
( The experiment... )
Botched game ad
Feb. 26th, 2024 08:45 pm
I had a game ad pop up while I was playing another game on my phone. There's a kind of "negging" that some of the ads use: "You can't handle this!" "What a loser!" "Only 0.008% of people can reach level 23!" and such. Presumably they're intending the viewers to get a feeling of superiority, trying to prove that they can do it. For me, such comments tell me that there's no way I want to try that game. If I "can't handle it" I'll only feel frustrated, and why would I voluntarily spend time with a person or thing that keeps insulting me?But this ad was a little different. "Only left brain thinkers can handle this!" The goal of the puzzle is to separate the rings by sliding them out in an order that lets them move freely. But the sample shown has no solution. The red, orange, and medium-green rings can't be detached from each other without cutting at least one, or resorting to a higher dimension.
It's the same configuration of rings that I made for myself as a "fiddle toy" many years ago. It looks like a wire puzzle, with small gaps in the rings, as though the rings could be separated if one only manipulated the thing properly. In reality, it's just a pretty symmetrical arrangement that makes a pleasant chiming if it's tossed in the air without spinning. Occasionally, I hand it to people to play with, without comment, and watch them try to figure out what they assume is a puzzle. Once, years ago at a convention in Minneapolis, I was chatting with some friends and pulled the thing out to fiddle with. When I explained to Pamela Dean that it wasn't actually a puzzle, it only looked like one and had no "solution", etc., she said to Patricia C. Wrede, "Pat! It's a Mike Ford toy!"
