General Musings

New York City in October 2019

Photo via Business Insider

I am fortunate enough to be able to go to New York again this year. This year will present a unique problem. Weather. Last year it was cold and rainy. This year (while there is a 10% chance of rain as of this writing) it should be drier and warmer with temperatures hovering around 60 degrees F.

I am leaning towards my down jacket, t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. I may even go with my flat cap to keep my head warm. I am so afraid of being too hot. 60 degrees is flip flop weather for me but I won’t do that in NYC. You can’t move very quickly in flip flops.

I’ll add updates and pictures as the trip gets underway. This year, I may add pictures as I go.

Update: (October 26, 2019) Going to wear sweatshirt, t-shirt, jeans, sneakers. Weather forecast says sunny and 63 degrees.

October 23, 2019 by General Musings

Labor Day!

Most folks celebrate Labor Day by not working. For the last several years, our company has had to work on Labor Day.

Not this year.

I get the opportunity to be off and write scathing articles about whatever the fonk I want. I started a short story about a young boy versus the universe and a cookie jar. Perhaps, I’ll finish the first draft.

Saturday, I ripped out all of the cabling in the office and re-ran everything. I ended up with a boxful of cabling that I obviously didn’t need. I probably should have done that years ago. I was most happy to resurrect the Heineken sign that I’ve had for about seven years.

Heineken LED Lamp circa 2011
Office after excessive cable removal
September 4, 2018 by General Musings

Man Charged in Stabbing…has NO arms

Sad but true from Reuters…

(Reuters) – A 46-year-old homeless man with no arms was arrested in Miami Beach, Florida, for stabbing another man with a pair of scissors using his feet, police said on Wednesday.

Florida native Jonathan Crenshaw stabbed a 22-year-old Chicago man twice with the scissors before running away, according to the Miami Beach Police Department report on Crenshaw’s early Tuesday arrest.

I really don’t know who is at fault but I’ll probably side with the homeless guy with no arms.

July 11, 2018 by General Musings

Great Idea!

I saw this post this morning and totally agree that this would be a great way to go with the Mac Mini.

Apple could still claim that Mr. Cook’s promise is in force. Apple could offer the most basic configuration of the 2019 Mac Pro as the 2019 Mac mini. At Mac mini pricing levels.

Of course, if properly designed, that very same chassis could be outfitted with the highest level of computational power. Say, 32 Xeon cores, 256, 512, or 1,024 GB of RAM, a 4 TB SSD. Plus a monster graphics system and all kinds of other plug-ins that would be beyond the realm of an ordinary Mac mini. That’s the $10,000 Mac Pro we’ve always been thinking of.

By cleverly designing a 2019 Mac Pro modular chassis, Apple neatly avoids product overlap and gives the Mac mini user base the upgradable Mac mini they’ve been dreaming of. And so customers of all kinds could start low, upgrade as they go, or start in the middle or go right to the top. The Mac world will have achieved computational heaven.

June 20, 2018 by General Musings

Fonking Shizz

I’m reading a book series called “Space Team.” The characters have translation chips imbedded in their heads that allow them to communicate with alien species.

The funny part about the whole thing is that the company who created the technology doesn’t allow cursing. When it picks up a curse word, it substitutes that word with something considered “safe.” Just hearing that from the Audible book reader is enough to make you laugh.

And that…is some fonking shizz!

June 16, 2018 by General Musings

Pseudo Camping Trip

I’m finally taking a few days off. I’m happy that our big project is past the first big hurdle and we are now into phase 2.

With that being said, I believe it is time to test some new camping gear. One of the latest additions is the Lynx ALPS 4 tent. It is a rather large tent weighing in at 10 pounds. I like the smaller Bivy style tent I have but sometimes you just need more room.

I’m going to spend most of the morning trying to figure out what gear I’ll need and then — pack it up. I’m taking the Trekking King 60L Survival Rucksack.

I’m looking forward to some winding down.

April 30, 2018 by Camping General Musings

Time for A Short Story

I wrote a story a couple of years ago called “P-5443 or Bust.” I’m not sure why I chose the name but it seemed fitting for the story itself.

I’ve added the story to the short story tab above.

I just re-read it and I still like the story — especially the ending. Hat Tip to my friend John who always believes that stories need hope — somewhere.

There is some hope in this story…sort of.

It is a very quick read. The idea was a small word count. I was originally going to submit this to the yearly PBS writing contest but never got around to it.

Enjoy.

April 22, 2018 by General Musings Science Fiction Short Stories

Chuck is Back

After a few weeks of ups and downs, my friend Chuck is finally out of the hospital. He collapsed at work several weeks ago from a mild heart attack. After a few days of diagnosis, it was determined that he required open heart surgery.

After the surgery, Chuck has some more battles to overcome including standing up and then — dying.

He was brought back and then forced into a coma for a few days.

He was supposed to be able to come home yesterday but the hospital wouldn’t release him.

Today — after all of this — he is finally home.

Watching a friend go through this makes me look at where I am as far as my health is concerned.

I certainly don’t want to go through what he has.

Anyway, I’m glad he is finally home.

Update: (04.21.2018) – Chuck had to go back into the hospital a couple of times because of respiratory issues. Fluid builds up in his lungs and he can’t breathe. This has happened twice now. He finally came back home again yesterday. He sounds much better and has lost a lot of weight. I have to admit that I was getting worried when I didn’t see him this morning. His brother called and finally woke him up. I was honestly wondering about whether or not he had passed as a reason for not seeing him this morning. My mind wonders and I couldn’t be more happy to be wrong in this instance.

April 8, 2018 by General Musings

Water Worlds

Great article in Scientific American about debate on whether life would exist or not on a world made up of water.

I like the comment near the bottom of the article about comparing everything to Earth and why it is not always a good idea.

“I think it could be dangerous just thinking about everything in an Earth-mindset,” Ramirez says. “You might be missing out on other possibilities.”

I still feel a bit of arrogance from the scientific community about life on other planets. You can’t armchair quarterback the universe and the only way you are ever going to know what these worlds are like — is to VISIT them.

In unrelated news…I still think it is super cool that I can copy a link on my iPad and paste that link into my MacBook Pro. </end geek moment>

April 5, 2018 by General Musings Science

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Rebel World

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