We’ll need to have a little discussion about that hat. Welders from Texas are only allowed to wear Trump hats around here as long as they are Phoebe’s friends.
On 2nd thought, I think I like it like that, in this pic at least!
Shrimp Tank Finally Paying Off
I’ve been keeping a 20-gallon tank for farming snails and shrimp the last few years. The big tank denizens in the main room get live food from it – whenever there’s enough to actually do that, which has not been very often until sometime recently. Not sure why it took 3 years for it to take off. My best guess is maybe I was not feeding the shrimp and snails enough. In any case, yesterday was the 1st time I was able pull out a full meal’s worth of shrimp. Fresh food is always the best, whether you are a fish or any other creature. They also seem to have a great time exercising their predatory instincts chasing them around.
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Interstellar Space
Putting things in perspective – if that is even remotely possible, considering the dearth of knowledge and vastly unlimited expanses in this area – we have finally scratched the surface of space. Real analysis of the immense emptiness of space has begun, giving previously unknown perspective to our own heliosphere and how it interacts with the cosmos.
Then I have to consider Neil Degrasse Tyson’s view or opinion on the whole space travel/exploration topic: If we have the technology to go to Mars, why aren’t we prioritizing it’s use to fix our own broken planet first?
350 Kills
PSU Women’s volleyball is on the verge of a new school record this year, just like I predicted. Francie stood out as the only Panther selected All Conference 1st Team, ending the regular season 20 shots ahead of the next best hitter. She was 2nd in total points, and ranked #4 in kills per set.
PSU eliminated Southern Maine in the 1st round of the LEC Tournament today. Once again, Francie slammed down the winning kill. That’s my girl!
Gun Control and Healthcare
Yes, only an hour ago I decried my apathy and contempt for politics. This is just a rehash of a previous post pointing out exactly how absurd some of this bullshit is getting. People paying attention know the truth about the relationship between these two things. I personally experienced another big dose of it in January, and continue suffering for it today.
Alot of the narrative surrounding both of these topics is pure bullshit. All you need to do is learn your own information and stop swallowing the garbage being presented in every public forum and broadcast medium I can imagine. But how can these topics be related in any meaningful way, you may ask? It’s pretty simple and the comparison is sobering – Simple statistics.
This particular set of statistics (crime/firearms/death/healthcare) tells us, at least some few years ago, that you are 9,000 times more likely to die at the hands of a healthcare professional, than being killed by someone with a gun. I understand this in a uniquely personal way. That number has likely gone up by now.
Damn Koreans
I’m gobsmacked. At first I thought it must be a misprint, or maybe the R&T people got some bad dope. It can’t be true. Hyundai garners 2020 Performance Car of the Year! Up against the perennial stalwarts, some costing more than 3 times the sticker price, the Veloster N is a real phenom:
“The Veloster was an outlier—outgunned and outclassed by nearly every other car in this test.”
Props, Korean car dudes and dudettes – you have arrived!
Most People Don't Get It
I no longer have one single fuck to give about climate change, the economy, healthcare, or any of the myriad politically-charged bullshit topics inundating the cyber and airwaves these days. Because it’s bullshit. It’s mostly just bullshit from bullshitters trying to get over and grab whatever they can for themselves. So now we have a con man in the Oval Office, surrounded by a bunch of yes men out for nothing and nobody but themselves.
Better not forget who REALLY keeps you in power, mutherfucker.
I’m pretty familiar with military culture. I bet there’s plenty of folks in uniform right now just as fed up with the Commander in Chump’s bullshit as I am. There’s a passel of ’em in Syria right now wondering WTF. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a little PWFWC training exercise unfold on the White House lawn sometime soon.
The Secret Service will have their hands full just trying to determine which end is up. Despite their oath, I doubt many are willing to die for the Orange Fuckwit like TSgt Chapman died for his country. I’d like to see the current POTUS hauled out in handcuffs. Just my humble opinion.
PedoPoseurdom Demographics
We can be confident people in this group will constitute a large cross-section of PedoPoseurdom demographics: Criminally negligent corporate executives and everyone else who gets a kick out of violating the public trust. I suppose low-level types like this could be given a parole option. The biggest swath from that bunch will be the typically common fraudsters and inside traders. These people are sociopaths enthusiastically testing the limits of decent society with impunity.
Now we can expect to see Boeing emerge from this as just another too-big-to-fail economically foundational organized crime syndicate. Some of these people need to go to jail if the findings are in fact true. If the overall company suffers unduly or eventually fails, that is incentive for others to think about going forward. Police yourselves, assholes.
I experienced this type crap going on in Lockheed myself. Corners cut, specs fudged, tests faked. It’s everywhere economic incentive to cheat exists, and government is basically helpless to stop it. It’s nothing against the companies or workforce themselves. The problem is, they are after all, made up of imperfect people like you and me.
What do you expect? I’m pretty sure most expect higher standards in aircraft safety – especially from the people responsible for this type stuff. Boeing has alot of work left to do. This is not about getting the Max back in the air. It’s about getting Boeing’s head out of their collective asses.
Just a Theory
The weed horse has alot of life left in it. So I’ll keep aggressively beating it. It’s not going away, and it certainly won’t die. How do you un-beat the near-dead horse Christianity and Capitalism tried to kill?
I just realized personal corroboration for the NORML post linked above. All through this back injury nonsense I’ve been confronted with doctors over and over again who didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with me. I wonder why…
There is no question Cannabis effectively calms the muscle spasms invoked by this particular back injury. My entire midsection, down the right leg and up into the right shoulder were literally locked with muscle clenching throughout January and February this year, immediately following the left hip surgery. At the time, it was just a bad reaction to the surgery. Took 6 months of hacking through the thickest jungle of VA bullshit I’ve ever experienced to clear up that little misunderstanding.
It’s still terrible – I’m just growing accustomed to it. Still rolling big knots out of my buttocks and back every night. Still slightly limping to the right – with a fresh hip replacement on the left. Go figure. Like I told Chris the other day, I don’t care about the pain. That’s no picnic either. All I really want is to just be able to walk again.
Then that article popped up in my news feed this morning and I had an epiphany. I remembered sitting in Annie’s office being interviewed at the Loveland VA a couple weeks ago. It drew out late into the afternoon, and I was sitting there literally twitching from time-to-time because I hadn’t had any medication all day. No – not the meth-head tweaker-type drug-withdrawal twitch. It’s a unique little doodad this thing does when the glute receives some aberrant, momentary little jolt from the festering nerves in there that just sorta radiates out into the leg and up the back. Left un-treated, it continues spreading further, more intensely, eventually clamping down and not releasing any time I’m on my feet. It’s the body’s natural radiculopathy reaction to nerve root damage. I wonder if Annie noticed me starting to do that, at the worst I’ve been in probably the last 2 months, or since my last T-break. I’m pretty sure MJ is the biggest thing keeping me going right now.
But what about every other prior doctor visit so far this year? They saw a healthy-looking 60-YO without a cane (most times) appearing to walk normally, good vitals – WTF?! It’s easy to see how George was fooled. I showed up at the first followup 2 weeks after surgery, off the hydrocodone already, rarin’ to go. But I never recovered. How much you wanna bet the Cannabis has been masking my symptoms all year long – enough to the point where doctors were slotting me into their personal whiny hypochondriac category right off the bat?
Just a theory. But if that’s the answer to my VA problem, it’s still the wrong answer. I’ve been telling them about it for years, turning down the pharmaceuticals. KInda hard to get with the program when people can’t agree on how to conduct what program.
While I'm Still in a Real Bad Mood…
Fuck Trump, too. Apparently Donny-boy recently had his eye on Greenland for some reason. Him and the Pope should start a new country in there called Pedo-Poseurdom. We’ll build a wall around the whole goddamn continent, start up a NATO-sponsored no-fly zone, and ship in every sumbitch’n dictator, pedophile and high-ranking corporate cocksucker that steps out of line. They can butt-fuck each other all day long while proclaiming their great wisdom and sanctity.
This cretin simply cannot be for real.
“Supposedly, according to the Corrupt Media, the Ukraine call ‘concerned’ today’s Never Trumper witness,” Trump tweeted. “Was he on the same call that I was? Can’t be possible! Please ask him to read the Transcript of the call. Witch Hunt!”
Just What I needed VIII
I was hoping to get this done in 10 installments. After meeting with the folks at the Colorado Spine Institute today, that is finally starting to look like a real possibility. Yesterday was also a stroke on the plus side for a change, when as expected, the EMG test turned up negative. That’s a GOOD thing – still no nerve damage – or so they say.
CSI looks like the real deal. I don’t doubt the last 2 spine guys are knowledgeable professionals. But they aren’t good doctors, in my estimation. The 1st guy had a canned spiel ready for me, and when specifically questioned about my 1 specific complaint, both of us gazing at the MRI display, his response was “what, that little thing – that’s nothing.” The 2nd guy just flatly refused to do what I knew then needs done. And just for the record, Dr. Knight with the rehab gang in the Aurora VA also flatly refused. I haven’t even met Dr. Donner yet, but his PA, Chris took the time to ask all the right, carefully reasoned diagnostic questions, AND explain in detail the complicated mess of potential implications and outcomes.
So I’ll undergo a CT Discogram soon as we can get it scheduled, and see what happens. Best guess prognosis at this time seems to lead to a fusion procedure. Or it could be nothing, maybe something in-between. I’m not exactly looking forward to another surgery, but I can’t go on like this.
Winter Came Early This Year
First year in recent memory we’ve had real cold and snow before Thanksgiving. We’re showing 19 degrees with 3 inches on the ground at 7am and more of the same expected through Wednesday. At least it was cold enough to not stick to the leaves causing any tree damage. I believe it caught the morning commuters by surprise too, from the looks of the traffic map.
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I'm Not Surprised…
“Death is all around us, yet when it comes to our own deaths, we are not updating our prediction to assimilate that reality, Dor-Ziderman said. It’s unclear what evolutionary purpose this breakdown serves.”
Eventually these researchers are going to get past scratching the surface.
…but considering evolutionary issues, and how much some folks love their beer…
Fuck the Pope
I used to pity the catholics. Now I’m just disgusted with the whole concept of catholicism. What a wretched gang of charlatans.
Time Flies When You're Retired
Four and a half years after retiring, and they still cannot find qualified engineers.
Just another of the many reasons why I don’t answer the phone much any more. I probably spend more time blocking numbers and deleting 3 second voicemails than I do talking on the damn thing. At least the job inquiries are down to about 1 a month.
Forensics Rule
Some of my favorite technological and scientific advances are in the realm of forensics – all kinds. There’s the crime type everyone seems familiar with. Digital was part of the job in several assignments with both the Air Force and Lockheed. It’s pretty amazing how you can break down the physical world to it’s most fundamental parts and get a first-hand reality peek into the past. And there’s no argument. Given a “thing,” the arrangement of molecules “is what it is” now. Based on an unbroken chain of scientifically-proven causes and events, where it came from and how it got to be here this way, can be factually determined, beyond a reasonable doubt. Not being a doctor or medical examiner myself, I can’t be too technical about this, but here goes:
Take my lumbar spine, for example. An L4-5 annular tear reflects a traumatic force applied in some direction. Z axis spinal flex is minimal, because the spine is held together by the annulus portion between each disc and vertebrae. It’s basically the glue holding everything together, propping you up while standing. OTOH, we have great spinal flexibility in the X-Y axes due to nature’s mechanical engineering of the vertebrae and discs – ask any hoola hoop or gymnastics buff. So unless you are being drawn and quartered, a traumatic force causing an annular tear may potentially source from any 360-degree radius direction.
Thanks to the miracle of modern medical imaging techniques, we just happen to know exactly where my annular tear is located. Looking down with north facing front it’s at about East/Southeast on the compass dial. So by definition, the direction traumatic force sourced from was West/Northwest. Hold a small stick by the ends in your hands, arms outstretched straight in front, and bend in a plane parallel to the ground until it starts to break (tear). Now imagine you are facing East/South east, and the stick is my spine.
Anybody see a fresh hip replacement back there somewhere? I’m gonna say we got a bit overzealous seating the cup. I’m no orthopedic surgeon, so what the fuck do I know. We’ll find out, sooner or later, one way or the other – hopefully not in the course of a wrongful death lawsuit.