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Monday, January 30, 2012
Post #2581. Cable today. Incidentally, in an example of just how good Google is, I did a search for Farad Zakamea since I had only the vaguest idea of the spelling. Google immediately suggested Fareed Zakaria. I wondered just how far off I could type before it failed and tried several ridiculous entries. It wasn't until I morphed the last name into Hawaiian with a lot of humununu's that It gave up. Anyway, our man, Fareed Zakaria, was doing his show from Davos (losing quite a few people already) with guests Wadah Khanfar and Kishore Mahbubani. They were talking about what fabulously rich and enormously powerful men hanging out in Switzerland tak about, money and politics, I think. Strangely, even with all this, CNN's U.S. ratings continue to suffer somewhat. In the meantime, Fox was covering a two-hour car chase.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Post #2580. Uh ... Google? Just a note for you, bot, that exaweek and all the rest of it belongs to datapakrat at this place, not me. Thanks for your continued attention.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Post #2579. Monkeys. Remember when Bob Newhart did that bit about the monkeys, where they conducted an experiment placing an infinite number of monkeys at an infinite number of typewriters to see if they would eventually create all the Great Books? Remember that? Maybe not - it was 1961 after all. Pretty funny bit though. Anyway, I ran across something interesting today, at least I thought so,  this label attached to something I received. Looks to me like one of the machines was trying to tell the joke to some other machines. Once it fell flat, they just stuck it on packages and sent them along.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Post #2578. The 520. From 11pm until 5am, traveling across the Governor Albert D. Rossellini Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, also known as State Route 520 and also known as “Victory at Sea,” is free. Tolls begin at 5am and are charged at $1.60 for vehicles bearing a “Good-to-Go” transponder sticker and $3.10 for all others. These are billed by mail with the addresses derived from their photo-scanned license plate numbers. The first toll lasts for one hour. At 6am, the Good-to-Go rate rises to $2.80, and the general toll increases to $4.30. Again, this level lasts for one hour. For two hours beginning at 7am, the toll increases to $3.50 for Good-to-Go vehicles and $5.00 or all others. At the end of the primary rush period, the toll falls to $4.30 for regular vehicles and $2.80 for Good-to-Go stickers. This shoulder rate lasts for one hour until the official end of rush. The normal traffic rate comes into play at 10am and lasts for four hours. This rate is $2.25 for Good-to-Go vehicles and $3.75 for all others. The start of evening rush is at 2pm, at which time the toll rises again to $4.30 for regular traffic and $2.80 for Good-to-Go traffic. This is in place for one hour when it rises to $5.00 and $3.50 respectively. This evening peak toll lasts for three hours, until 6pm when it falls to $4.30 for general traffic and $2.80 for Good-to-Go. Another adjustment comes into play at the end of peak when the toll falls to $3.75 for general traffic and $2.25 for Good-to-Go vehicles. This lasts for one hour. At 9pm, the toll falls again, to $3.10 for regular traffic and $1.60 for Good-to-Go. At 11pm onward, there is no toll until 5am when the rates begin again. Weekend rates are completely different. At 5am, the Good-to-Go toll begins at $1.10 and .. all the other times and tolls vary from the weekday schedule. These tolls support the upcoming construction of a new Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, as yet unnamed. The new bridge will cost approximately Four And One-Half Billion Dollars and replaces the existing 50-year-old span which, unfortunately, did not have an HOV lane. Paradoxically, since the tolls went into effect, traffic has declined so dramatically that it may be possible to use a single lane for vehicles and develop the now unnecessary two additional ones for parks and recreation. FROM: Your Government at Work for YouRick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Post #2577. Employee-of-the-Month Trifecta. The Boeing Company manufactures the 737 at Renton, Washington in a process that involves integrating thousands of parts from all over the world. One such part, a doorhandle that was made in the U.K came complete with flaws that caused Boeing to reject $200,000 worth of them every year. An engineer, Fred Siebert, redesigned the part so it could be manufactured locally, had zero defects, had three parts instead of fourteen, and could be assembled by a local company which employs people with disabilities in sheltered workshops. Now, almost no one reads this blog, but it does get searched by the Bot, so here's one more vote in the -verse for Fred Siebert as Employee of the Month! Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Post #2576. 2012 is looking good I drop things all the time. One of the downsides that comes with getting old. I don't get upset by it anymore, just part of the added cost for being here. Pills are great for dropping. I just kick them over to the edge of the kithen by the trash and pick them all up every few weeks. Yeah, that's what it comes to. Oh, there are a whole lot more slobby things to which life is reduced, but you don't want to know about all of them. Anyway, today I was filling tonight's vitamin cups for Brother and me, 8 for him, 7 for me, and a 400mcg Folic Acid tab (I forget what they're good for,) slipped from my fingers, fell, hit and bounced off a D3 in my cup, went straight up about six inches and fell right into Brother's cup where it belonged. I take this as an excellent omen for the year 2012, at least up to December 21st when all bets are off for everybody. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Post #2575 Why???! This will be short. Googlebot nagged three times today, and I fear they will drop me. What would that mean? I don't know, but since their aim is to take over the world, there's no sense in taking any chances. Anyway, to the point: Seattle Public Utilities ran a commercial on television last night, cable, in which they issued a generic message to Save Water. A reminder, this in Seattle. Second reminder, December 29th featured one of the most epic deluges of rain in Seattle in the past 150 years. I know. I should have gone outside and set out as many pots and pans as I could manage, but I didn't. Go ahead, report me. I don't even care anymore. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Post #2574. The Wild West. There was a gunbattle in the neighborhood today. I first got wind of it when I heard Channel 4's helicopter right over my head. It is an old, Vietnam vintage model that sounds like it's about to crash. Watched the news at 6pm and, sure enough, three men shot, all rushed by Medic One to Harborview were they were saved. (No telling how many dying old ladies were left as the responders dropped everything to rush to the shooting-with-television incident.) Wow, that sounds a little bitter. Did it? Good. Anyway, by 11pm, it didn't even make the news. That's what happens when you live in this part of town. So, what was the shooting all about? "Under investigation." No one knows. No one really cares, including me actually. There are several companies I'm angry with today. DELL for shipping a package of two ink cartridges requiring an adult signature. UPS for ringing the doorbell, then sprinting back to his truck before I can even get close to answering the door. Today was Day 2 of this delivery. I've left him a rude note for tomorrow, my third and final chance. You know me, it was seriously rude. BLAIR, a formerly fine company which has basically become a classic customer-cheaters. Do not buy from them. Burn the catalog. On the other hand, good companies. BETTERWORLDBOOKS.COM Go there. Spend a lot. They will amaze you. Finally, for the starving people of North Korea. News report today that the administration has been debating for months whether or not to supply food aid to this country. Does that sound like Step 4 of Sir Humphrey Appleby's Five Steps for the Handling of Foreign Crises, or what? Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Post #2573. Some math. Got to thinking about pi and what might be the formula for it. Turns out there are many, the most reliable being John Machin's:  Sorry to use up so much bandwith and space on your page, but here is pi to 2,000 places using that formula: 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971 693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348 253421170679821480865132823066470938446095505822 317253594081284811174502841027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091456485669234603486104543266482 133936072602491412737245870066063155881748815209209628292540917153643678925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094330572703657595919530921 861173819326117931051185480744623799627495673518857527248912279381830119491298336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798609437027705392171 762931767523846748184676694051320005681271452635608277857713427577896091736371787214684409012249534301465495853710507922796892589235420199561121 290219608640344181598136297747713099605187072113499999983729780499510597317328160963185950244594553469083026425223082533446850352619311881710100 031378387528865875332083814206171776691473035982534904287554687311595628638823537875937519577818577805321712268066130019278766111959092164201989 380952572010654858632788659361533818279682303019520353018529689957736225994138912497217752834791315155748572424541506959508295331168617278558890 750983817546374649393192550604009277016711390098488240128583616035637076601047101819429555961989467678374494482553797747268471040475346462080466 842590694912933136770289891521047521620569660240580381501935112533824300355876402474964732639141992726042699227967823547816360093417216412199245 863150302861829745557067498385054945885869269956909272107975093029553211653449872027559602364806654991198818347977535663698074265425278625518184 175746728909777727938000816470600161452491921732172147723501414419735685481613611573525521334757418494684385233239073941433345477624168625189835 694855620992192221842725502542568876717904946016534668049886272327917860857843838279679766814541009538837863609506800642251252051173929848960841 284886269456042419652850222106611863067442786220391949450471237137869609563643719172874677646575739624138908658326459958133904780275 If you plan on competing in one of those memory contests, you might want to keep a copy. Out of curiosity, I counted (well, the computer did) the number of times each digit appears in these results: 1 – 212 2 - 207 3 - 189 4 - 195 5 - 205 6 - 200 7 - 197 8 - 202 9 - 210 0 – 180 This ia a considerably wider range than I would have expected. Some meaning here? Incidentally, a well-known trigonometrical identity can be used to prove John Machin’s formula for pi. I'm working on a formula to see if my own discovery is significant.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Post #2572. O.M.G.! Is it the End of the World?  No, just an encampment of Gypsies being burned to the ground in England. Or Ireland. They aren't really Gypsies, according to someone quoted, but Travellers. For the British, however, is that they're problem is that there their. That's pretty much always been the problem. I remember many years ago several wagons of genuine gypsies rolled into our tiny (pop. 99) village in very rural France. We children were enchanted by all of it, our parents not so much. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.Grand Âyatollâh Seyyed ‘Alî Hossaynî Khâmene’î President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Monday, November 14, 2011
Post #2571. About the network. (See earlier post, 3 or 4 down.) Just a quick note - we managed to set up our network and are now going crazy with it. We have 11 working computers in the house and are going to see how many we can connect. Obviously, the Radio Shack 4P is not a candidate, but some of the newer ones definitely are. I'm not completely sure we aren't broadcasting unsecured to the entire local area, but the ten or twelve people I can see all look fairly nice. I threw this into drafts because I didn't know how it would tuirn out. Not well, it seems. After we set up the mighty fine network it worked just fine for awhile, until I looked at the neighborhood and saw that we were broadcasting loudly to everyone again. I deleted everything, onhooked everything, unplugged the cables and even pulled out the rabbit ears, no change. Still broadcasting. I'm certain that Bill is behind this somehow. But why? Obviously to monitor what you're blogging. You know, you might just be right on that.
Friday, November 04, 2011
Post #2570. Snooty Dell. Look at the email I got from Dell after my attempted reply to their explaination of a recent foulup; Message for domain dell.com. Remote host said: 452 Too many recipients received this hour. Connections from this sending hostname nm22-vm0.bullet.mail.sp2.yahoo.com, IP address of: 98.455.000.000 are being throttled due to low SenderBase Reputation score. Your SenderBase organization: 2000246.Whuu-uuuut? I have a Low SenderBase Reputation Score? In the opinion of one of our machines, yes, it seems so. This is not the end of this. To the tunnels!Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Post #2569. A Higgs boson walks into a bar. So, I'm watching Nova, and they're trying, again, to explain to us ants how the universe works. I'm following it so far, as usual, to the extent one can without the math, until they get to the latest thing: it's really all just two-dimensional and expressed by a hologram on the walls of a black hole. Something like that. Well, I couldn't go for any of it and decided to make my soup. It was that time of the evening by now. There was a can, a bowl and a pan. I emptied the soup from the can into the bowl and stood there for a moment trying to figure what was wrong with the picture. Oh, I have to heat it first in the pan, THEN pour it into the bowl. My thinking was definitely not in the kitchen but still in the living room. Isn't it amazing how it works? I wonder if we will ever fully understand the human mind? No, you won't. Say whut, who was that? On top of it, I realized that I took Physics before Professor Higgs invented the particle. How's that for being ancient?Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Tuesday, November 01, 2011
Post #2568. Viralityness. No, that one doesn't work either. I need a new word to define the new phenomenon when something "goes viral." That phrase is just the first part. The second is the universal reaction to the "going viral" by people who may or generally do not have any clue what it is about. Since it is pretty much running the world right now, I think it's high time somebody who does this sort of thing looks into it. Related: the utter and complete dumbification of America. Like Jerry, I'll often jot things down as they occur to me in order perhaps to include them here. Most don't make it. This one didn't: "Can't you Neep it? No. We neep it with our own neepathalogs. OMG, you don't have any n." If anyone has a clue, please notify this blog. Brother and I have been trying to set up a home network by ourselves. With 20+ years on this thing, plus plenty of instructions to be had, we should be able to do it. Our new computer shows a couple nearby computers transmitting wirelessly; one is our 85-year-old widow neighbor on one side, and the other is a 66-year-old widow on the opposite. Several more appear to be neighbors I don't know, illegal immigrants mainly. All of these people have working wireless networks and we don't. It's even sadder that we may actually be blasting everything out wirelessly ourselves, like what happened the last time we tried it, and not even know.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Post #2567. Memories. It was just a matter of time before I would come across the perfect container for storing this item. I made a mental note to keep an eye out. Sure enough, after some time, no way to know how much time, here was this little black vinyl packet, about the size of several CD's, nice big fold-over flap, no lettering or logo, even a little fuzzy inside. Just right for .... what? Now, what the heck was it that I needed to store? THAT memory was gone, gone like it never existed gone. You know how that feels - your mind is never going to be able to pull it up. I've put the container in a location fully in view in my kitchen should the lost item ever turn up. When it does, I'll finally be able to match them and store the package in some place in this house where I'll never find it again. This sort of thing goes on All The Time.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Friday, October 07, 2011
Post #2566. Just a slice. She was in a super high productivity caffeine-charged hurry. I was old and sluggish. So, the UPS pickup dispatch lady met the crabby old man. Wonder who won? Please. I wouldn't have bothered normally. Mail order is pretty reliable, and you have to weigh the very occasional mistake against the nuisance of correcting it. They know that, by the way. But, when you ORDER a pair of 1XL really comfortable-looking cotton summer lounging pants Made in India but GET a 8XLT dark, dark Puke Green sleeveless "wool" cardigan sweater instead, well, it's gotta go back no matter how much time it takes on the phone on a Friday with Miz UPS. You know what's funny? She's all .. I need that 47-digit tracking number, your name, address with zip code, pet's nickname, etc., and I need it NOW, and I'm all .. Which way is up on this dadgummed thang anyway and now it's stuck to my hair, and I remember full well and quite hilariously clearly when the positions would have been 180 degrees reversed and I'd be screaming inside Lawd, free me from all this .. and now He has. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Sunday, October 02, 2011
Post #2565. It was a litttle like the ugly-baby christening. The wedding pictures, "Oh, how precious!" (ugh!) She was lovely in the carefully-selected I'm sure white wedding gown with all the trimmings. He, on the other hand, is apparently his own man and does things his way. Long, long Kenny-G curly hair, unshaven, white wrikled shirt with the sleeves rolled up, slept-in baggy trousers, sandals. The guests all dressed like him. Even the wedding cake ...  well, at least she'll have the dress for her grandaughter. Perhaps by then style and tradition will have returned. Am I being catty? Yes. Good! Bottom line is that I'm fed up with long hair and three-day beards, We've become a slob society, wearing clown clothes. Occasionally a pop-up gets past the blocker. One did today. Impressed with its perspicacity, I clicked on it. I usually do, if only to charge the owner and create a little economic activity. It was for careers. Oh good, just what I need. Let's see .. my age, "over 70," occupational interest, "Technology," Zip Code, I made up 22630. And my winning selection: WYOTECH in Dayton, Florida: Asian Motorcycle Technology. I'd jump on it except for one thing I learned by experience in the hotel business: If they have an address or a card from FLORIDA or ARIZONA .. run away, run like the wind. I was thumbing through one of my childhood books and ran across a story of the alligator (villain) and the jackal (our hero.) Several situations illustrated the dimwittedness of the alligator versus our very clever jackal. In the end, the jackal tricks the alligator into hiding in his house which he then lights on fire and burns him to death. The only conclusion I could draw from this story is that we kids weren't that bright either, but we did seem to enjoy gruesome murder. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Post #2564. Salmon. I'll try not to go crazy this time. This is a picture of the Elwha hydroelectric dam in Washington State. We used to be famous for them, but now we are more famous for salmon and the lengths we will go to preserve them.  We are tearing down this dam in order to restore the colossal salmon run which existed before it was constructed in 1913. The estimated price for this job is $350,000,000.00 which is expected easily to double. No matter. It's about the salmon. Experts differ on just how huge the actual salmon might be, the ones which have been waiting all of these years to swim upriver and spawn. We shall soon see. But, what about the electricity generated by that dam? No worry. We have this,  the equally magnificent Centralia Big Hanaford Coal-fired Power Plant, recently expanded by another 1,000 Megawatts. There is enough coal near this plant to last 1,779 years.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Post #2563. When it's sunny and festive. No one has any idea where all of these thousands of people spend the other 364 days of the year, but when we have that lovely, warm sunny day, usually towards the end of July, first of August, here they come. So much pent-up energy and joy. Soon enough, later that afternoon usually, it will cloud up, get a little misty and cool, and they fade away. I think this may be where a lot of Seattle's music comes from. Oh, not from these guys; they're just the inspiration.  Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Monday, September 05, 2011
Post #2562. Number Five. That's who/what you remind me of, Googlebot. Did you know the 10th anniversary of 9-11 is coming up? If not, where have you been, Pluto? At least in ten more years fully 80-90 million Americans will have no personal memory of that day, and maybe then the remembrances will get toned down a little bit. In the meantime, the wrenching overdoneness continues. Everybody's got a story or an angle. I had to refill a prescription that day. This isn't so much a 9-11 story as it is a pair of pharmacy stories. The strange and shy cashier who never spoke above a whisper asked me for I.D. to support my credit card. She had probably checked me out a hundred times before, never with the slightest hint of recognition. This was evidently their thing to do that day, make sure no terrorists were about, ready to create mayhem with their stolen credit cards. Otherwise, the store was deathly silent. Another time, in the other pharmacy (lots of old people around here, lots of pharmacies,) I approached the raised platform to perform my periodic supplication and hopefully get some pills when I noticed a heavyset man, shirtless, lying on his back on the floor. He wasn't moving. There was no Medic One rig in front of the store and no firemen about. No one was paying any attention. The man was Clearly Dead. The pharmacist handed me the pills, I paid and left. I haven't been back to that pharmacy. It's been about ten years, and hopefully someone has looked after the body by now. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Post #2561. I know, I know .. There has just been so much going on. Really? Of course not. Oh, in the wide word, yes certainly. Do I care? Yes, I pretend to very much. I even post things on sites where people argue endlessly and no one every changes his mind. Funny how we never give up. Wednesday was the most beautiful day in the history of the world. Ah, teetering toward the manic again, I see. Why yes, thanks for noticing. For fellow astronomy nerds, a supermassive black hole has ingested a star in a galaxy about 4.5 billion light years from here. It was reported as, "scientists have discovered and viewed," when in fact, On March 28, a detector on the Earth-orbiting Swift observatory picked up a sudden burst of radiation from a point in the constellation Draco, 4.5 billion light-years away. It automatically swiveled around to point its X-ray telescope toward the odd activity.So, just to be completely accurate, "we" didn't discover this phenomenon, a machine did. We just got a message and looked. Get used to this sort of thing happening more and more.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Post #2560. Exaweek. DataPacRat. That's his virtual identity - real name is Daniel Boese, a Canadian. I know, nobody thinks a Canadian can be brilliant, but this one is. I run across him on the Internet about once every five years and discover an amazing jungle of content, more stuff than I could ever even absorb, much less create. I call it a jungle because you just keep going deeper and deeper into directories and subs- until it's hard to find the way out. Not to mention the over-my-head part. Anyway, the most interesting thing (to me) was this .. copy/pasting: Anonymous 03-24-2005 at 05:25:20 PMI wanted to share this because it is the sort of thing that puts me in a Time Mood where I can (try and) think far-out stuff. Like that post awhile back which I've got to get back to and make more sensible. Also, Daniel mentioned that he was the only person in electrons to use the word "exaweek." I searched Google, and he still was. Of course, I always have to correct Google: NO, Google, -"exam week". Wish they would personalize their fancy schmancy algorithms a little more, short of draining my life energy and stealing everything I have, that is, e.g., Rick wants exactly what he typed, nothing more or less. Oh, they're evil all right; they just just think we're too dumb to realize it yet. By the way, remember googlewhack? I got up to 7th in the world and stayed there quite awhile until I realized it was devouring my life. Just think how many points you could run up with exaweek. Two of us now. * Yes, for the many readers who may have noticed, this was a re-run. It was about to scroll of the current page into nothingness, i.e., archives. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Tuesday, August 09, 2011
Post #2559. He came back. This is likely the end of our story )Post #2557,) and it's important that the last chapter be told. My little miniature wasp buddy returned. I can't tell you how I know it was the same one, it just was. I started washing dishes, and there he was - right in the same spot on the window screen. He had discharged a messy pile of something on the screen. I didn't say anything. That would have been stupid. Instead, I just scraped him into the same bottle as before and took him to the front door this time. He did not Look Well At All, the old legs-in-the-air flat-on-his-back routine. Finally got him dumped out, and he did manage to fly away, took one turn around me and tried to hold on, but I brushed him away. Let's not get carried away here; he is/was? a WASP after all. The flowers have a lot of them this year, but no bees at all. A sign? Maybe. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Friday, August 05, 2011
Post #2558. Yankee Go Home. We're used to it. Although America is universally despised in every Urban Megametromonstrosity, Burg, Community, Village and Shithole around the world now, it wasn't always like that. People generally liked us until they met somebody 'mericun or saw us on the tee-vee. And it isn't all because we won't let them kill the Jews, though that's a big part. No, it was pretty much Dallas and 90210. I don't know whose idea it was to beam our wretched excess into every leaky shack around the world, but I'd like to meet and throttle him. Bad enough that we were watching that crap; at least we knew it was a joke.  Renault and some Japanese car company (think it was Nissan) are thinking about joining up with (absorbing) General Motors and forming a Massive Global Automobile Conglomerate, headquartered in and run from France, of course. Have you ever seen a Renault? Have you ever seen a Renault and not laughed right out loud? We actually owned one, I am not kidding you. It was in France, which helps soften it a smidge, in 1953. I can still see the ridiculous little green turd sitting out front of our house next to the '49 Buick. My dad drove it to work. From then until the end of his life he had to live with the one word argument demolisher: RENAULT. When this little merger of unequals goes through, and it will, you can draw a line and make a short entry in your nightly diary, End of Life as We Knew It.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Post #2557. A Bug story. It didn't start out as a bug story. I was washing dishes and enjoying the warm breeze from a window which would soon have to be closed to keep in the air conditioning. In my mind, I was working a story about and old man and a blackbird. It's been done. That's what I kept telling myself, but I persisted, thinking I could do a better one. It was important to frame the story from the perspective of the old man as well as the bird without dipping into anthropomorphism. This was important, so I thought very hard about the mind of this bird. The story revolves around the relationship developing between the two when the man begins leaving shiny baubles on top of a tall tree stump for the bird to find. In fact, the story opens when the glint of the first gift catches the very fine eye of the bird. My anthropomorphism issue came into play when one day the man stumbles, falls to the ground and doesn't move. In an arduous bit of development, I finally get the bird to the man and have him gently peck at the man's face. The man opens his eyes and says something along the lines of, "Think I'm a goner, old pal, unless you can go for help." Just as I was trying to pose this bit of interaction in the bird's brain, a wasp flew right around my head and almost nudged me a couple of times. Then he flew to the window and spent the next hour trying to find a way outside. As I was reaching for the flyswatter, something stopped me. How could I kill this hapless creature at the same time I was writing a story about the heartwarming friendship which develops between a man and a bird? Naturally, the only thing to do at that point was rescue him. So I did. I won't bore you with the ridiculous and awkward effort which followed, but I did manage to set him free through a screen that opened in the bathroom window on another floor. Naturally, blog, I won't be telling this to anyone but you.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Post #2556. Sunday noise. Sunday noise seems to bother me more than the other days. I've written about the daily noise in this, the noisiest spot on earth. I'm okay with most of it. On Sunday however, dear neighbor goes to Mass early and lets Yappy Dog out. As soon as she hits the back yard, Horny Little Wiener Dog from the next house goes crazy. He isn't fixed, and he has the perpetually unrequited hots for Miss Yappy. They both bark for about two hours, the time it takes for dear neighbor to go to church, do whatever else she does and come home. I can live with all that. However, The two yappies tend to set off Big Dog, the extremely huge and loud woof-woof type monster who lives behind us, and everydog else within miles. He just barks, and barks, and barks, never pausing. Long after whatever it was that startled him awake has passed, he keeps barking. Now, Horny Dog and Big Dog are just two of about thirty that don't belong to people who go to regular church. No, these owners all go to the Mega Church where they Hallelujah and Praise the Lord all day and night. When they finally get home, their dogs are starving and nearly wild. By the time everydog gets calmed down and fed, late Sunday nights are eerily quiet around here. Well, until ... since I like the house cool at night ... I turn the thermostat way down and kick the air conditioner on. Varooooom. Hallelujah Everybody. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Post #2555. Notifications. Did I tell the blog that my youngest brother died? Can't remember. Well, he did, about eleven months ago. Due to circumstances at the time, it passed differently than the way those things usually go. I didn't really do any of the proper things. No excuse, I just didn't. So, today I get an email from our closest cousin, Cousin Janice, "Sooo, how are you guys doing? Been Awhile." She's the closest because it has been only 26 years since I've seen her, as compared with 55 years for the others. Also, we've emailed. I brought her up to date, told her about Brother and also mentioned I have cancer. Figured I might as well get it all over with and only cause the agony of one reply instead of several. I just hope she doesn't want to come see me. She does have a habit of jumping on planes. One of the few people I did notify was family friend Dave. In his sympathy letter back, he went on quite a bit about things they had done together. I had no idea. They were the same age, and I was away at college over those years. Along with his remembrances, he mentioned how much fun the three of them had together, Dave, my brother and Russ. Russ? Other friend of the family, Russ? Oh jeez, he doesn't know. Russ is dead too. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Post #2554. Really? Even in greenie-weenie Seattle, I wouldn't be surprised to see thousands and thousands of these tiny strips of paper flying around in the breeze, caught on barbed wire, stopping up storm drains, choking pigeons and who knows what else.  just because people know when enough is too much. As for me, this is where I live,  and I have to tell you, I do not save water and I do not save electricity.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Post #2553. Everything is okay. I've a confession to make, however: been posting in another place. A complete waste of time but addicting in a annoying mild narcotic sort of way. I hope to kick it before too long. Basically, this is just for the googlebot because, bless its soulless self, it doesn't care what you type so long as you provide output. (I always picture the googlebot as appearing much like Number Five, but with zero personality, sadly.) There was an advertisement for K-Mart layaway. I didn't know this plan still existed, and I doubt if many people under forty or so have even heard of it. Still, buying something at K-Mart and then having to put it on layaway, wow, that's really getting down to basics. Sign of the times. At the utter opposite of the say-whut spectrum, American Express wants to be more relevant to the Facebook experience. Say whut? That's what they said. If I had the time, I would join American Express on Facebook and claim to be a Black Card Holder and lord it over the lesser cardholders. Interesting phrasing, black card holder versus black cardholder. What am I saying? Of course I have the time. Some songs for your pod, if you have one. I don't. Land of 1000 Dances - Cannibal and the HeadhuntersThese three tunes are guaranteed to perk up your day, no matter what. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Post #2552. Conversation with the sister-in-law. These days, they go something like this: Her: Hello? Anyone there?We do eventually get down to some actual conversation and, more often than not, remember large portions of it. For now anyway.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Monday, July 04, 2011
Post #2551. Classics. Occasionally, I'll post on opinion sites. More often than not someone will call me a f****** moron, or gramps. The young these days. I don't care. If they get too mouthy, I tell them to make sure their W-2's are up to date. Huh? Just keep that 7.65% coming, sonny, and you can call me whatever clever thing you want. Man, are they going to be pissed when the rate goes back up after this year. Most of them are so dumb they think they got a raise. Anyway, I do feel sorry for them, having no future and all. If they drop out, they face a life of receiving, storing, shipping, stocking and ringing up stuff that stinks cause it's made in China. Either that or the worse fate of typing into a television set for the next forty years. If they do get an "education," or what passes for one anymore, they can look forward to a miserable existence of underemployment and bitterness, saddled for life with a crushing debt of college loans. You've mentioned that before, the stink. Yeah, and I'm going to keep on mentioning it. We may have been a little pushy and made a few mistakes when we ran the world, but at least it didn't stink. Pretty grim when you consider the only thing that's going to save our butts is about ten years of rampant inflation. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Post #2550. This will be interesting. This man is a new arrival in Seattle, the incoming President of the University of Washington, Michael K. Young.  Now, let me say up front that I've known a lot of Mormons, and I generally like them. I've never felt a need to mock or belittle them, even though I think their religion is ridiculous. Michael Young is a Mormon, a descendant of Brigham Young himself no less. That said, Young takes charge here in an environment which is erschreckend politisch korrekt, except for Mormons and Christian Conservatives. These are fair game in Seattle. I won't be invited to any of the fancy events scheduled for the welcoming, but I imagine they will be like those for the first "Negro" way back when. Uncomfortable and proper. All I wanted to say right out loud was could a man possibly look more like a Mormon? And could that be more perfect for Seattle, or whut? And finally, where on earth was he when they were casting for Big Love? There, I've let it out. Feel better.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Post #2549. Ivory, the final. At last. Here is a short history of my situation with Ivory, the soap. I typed these posts awhile back: Sunday, March 29, 2009But tonight I can announce news on the Sweet Ivory front: Old Wonderful Ivory is back! I hadn't thought about it for awhile and had actually adjusted to that light, unwelcome waft of perfume at each washing, and I did not notice the change when it went away. Not only that, but the message on the package is gone as well. We will never know how it happened. Proctor&Gamble certainly isn't going to admit an error of this colossalness. And I have No Problem with that so long as they keep churning out the old stuff. Maybe I should buy up a ton of it like I did with 100-watt light bulbs? So nice to win one or a change. Maybe there's hope ...? Don't be ridiculous. This is one thing. Soap. There will never be hope anymore. Okay.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Post #2548. More Mad inspiration. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Post #2547. Numbers. Try this sometime. When you're copying a number, at least 10 digits, instead of saying the integers to yourself before turning to copy them, do it completely visually. Skip the brain step and don't "think" the number. You'll find (I did anyway) that you can copy a longer series, more accurately. Have to clear your thoughts entirely though, otherwise you'll get to the copy step completely blank. Interesting. I haven't tried it with anything but numbers. Might have to do with my pre-senility. I watched a few minutes of Glee tonight. Really. I've no idea about the storyline except the hard-faced blonde is a supposed villain (but with a heart, secretly,) that there's a gay kid (oh really, what a surprise) and there is a whole lot of talent. It was the last thing that interested me. Good grief. They did two numbers while I was watching and both were better than anything that currently wins those ridiculous contests and awards shows. All over on little old Channel 13. Speaking of Channel 13, I heard House is about done. Any bets on who gets to kill him? I'm conflicted, and since I haven't really followed the show except when reruns pop up somewhere, I'm not qualified to vote. (Okay, I like 13 for it.)Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Post #2546. New Today. A story from Los Angeles: At 2AM, south of downtown, seems a drunk woman driver, talking on a cellphone, plowed her car into a group of about 100 bicyclists, injuring eleven of them. The bikers belonged to "Midnight Ridazz," a Koreatown bicycling group which goes for late night group biking excursions. I read the comments which followed the article, 780 so far. Yes, there was something for everyone in that story.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Post #2545. Waste, Fraud and Abuse. Pass this along. It could get you into heated conversations or typebates if you enjoy that sort of thing. It just dawned on me today that Waste, Fraud and Abuse .. do not matter. Not an iota of difference in the end result, pumping money into the economy. If anything, WFA is more efficient since it requires no administration or oversight. I remember arguing back in college (unsuccessfully) that while the Marshall Plan did some good in the recovery of Europe after World War II, it was the black market trade in Lucky Strike cigarettes which really jump-started the economies of Western Europe, beginning with Germany. Heck, I was just a kid, living in Germany in 1952 and I remember wondering why the big deal about cigarettes? My parents smoked, but all of us Americans were warned vigorously not to let the Germans get their hands on any of our precious smokes. Enough g.i.'s and their willing German counterparts defied this strict rule, and the result is the German economic owerhouse of today. Wish now I had been a bit more brave and entrepreneurial back then.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Post #2544. Daphne. Reading the Sunday paper, Home & Gardens section. I know. I was drawn to this one shrubbery that I have just the place for, as soon as the dandelions are gone. The lady across the street says her mother-in-law has a foolproof concoction that works every time and doesn't kill anything else. Hmmm heard that before. Anyway, speaking of killing, the shrubbery,  called Daphne x transatlantica, or "Summer Ice," is large and long-blooming and does something most of the year. Just what I need. Only .. "despite these virtues, daphnes are heartbreakers. No other plant up and dies so unexpectedly and often." Perfect. Mine would die on the way home in the car. I'll keep looking. And this time, whatever I get will not end up in the corner of .. that room (you know the one I mean - it's on the way out back, has a concrete floor, a dirty sink, shelves, rubber boots, boxes of garden tools and fertilizer) where I never go. Another place I never go is my back yard. It is completely wild, and my neighbors are not too happy about that. I don't mean "wild" like your typical overgrown suburban lot that could be completely cleaned up by a couple of stoner teenagers over a weekend. I mean this is wild and impassible. This morning, I looked up from washing dishes and a raccoon was watching me from about twenty-five feet away. Don't remember ever seeing one in the daytime before. They move so slowly and casually as if they've not a concern in the world, something pretty dumb to believe here in Dog City. I had been leaving a slice of bread out occasionally for the blue jays, and it's likely this raccoon heard about it. They do love bread. My Virginia relative, second cousins and up, love to shoot raccoons. Yeah, they're country all right. Good ol' boys. My second cousin "Dot" was real close to being Deliverance, at least the way he talked, and would he ever go on and on about the coons. It didn't take too long before I could understand what he was saying. He took brother and me out in the forest last time we were back in Virginia. Eighty-some years old and you should have seen him scamper up them trails. (You get to pickin' it up real quick back thar.) Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Post #2543. Today in time travel. It wasn't so much the invention of time travel that wrecked the Universe, it was making the application available to anyone who wanted to take a ride. And that's what happens when you have an idea but no time to pry it out. It goes into drafts until one day you return, have no idea where you were going with that and write something else, like 30 Rock. was this a brilliant piece of comedy writing or what? I told her to stay/I didn't want her to leave/This is my fault ... leaveAnd finally, from the the irony file: US nuclear aircraft carrier evacuates from Japanese radioactive threat. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Post #2542. I took a week off. I found a discussion forum to post in and got involved, until I realized that it makes no sense to debate with anonymous persons who are deranged and have no lives. Think about this: somewhere in this country is the worst brain surgeon in the entire United States, operating away. Last week, during the 60 Minutes' interview with President Obama, they cut the sound very briefly while he was speaking. It intrigued me because they never do that. Once you say it on 60 Minutes, they've got you. Curious, I ran it back several times, but I could not read his lips to understand what words were deleted. So I went to the CBS site where a transcript was posted and saw that the words were; "wealthy, you know," referring to a hypothetical Dubai prince as the sort of person who might have actually been in the compound instead of Bin Laden had the intelligence been wrong. The only thing I can figure is that the President is trying to remove words like "you know" from his discourse, and CBS decided to cut him a break. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Post #2541. Today's cartoon. The first panel shows a scholarly type fellow at a desk, "scratch, scratch," diligently working figures. In the next panel, we see him at a lectern, addressing a group of scientists, reporters, interested persons, "If we act soon," he says, there is still time to reverse the effects that humanity has had upon the climate." The next two panels show the same thing, only "reverse" is replaced by "halt." Next two: "if we act soon" is replaced by "if we act Now." Finally, he reports in the last panel, "I'm afraid there is no more time. Nothing we do now will have any effect upon the looming climate disaster. Accordingly, I'd like to announce that I am leaving my position as Professor of Climatology and will be looking for a job doing something else." I don't get it. This will never happen.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Monday, May 09, 2011
Post #2540. Amazingly convenient. Right about the time I started to fall apart and a lot of walking, bending, lifting, pushing, seeing, searching and checking-out became more difficult, home grocery delivery arrived. Costs the same, pretty much, and the shopping ladies do a far better job of selecting that I ever could. They even send my 7 oranges a week in a range from firm to soft n' ripe. Can you believe it? Oh, that's not all. No sooner did I swear off housework forever and render my home un-guestable, friend-media started. Now I have "friends" I can "see" (or not) whenever I want. I have classmate friends from my high school who graduated 15-30 years after I did! It doesn't even matter because we'll never meet. Got a great post from one just tonight. She is so cool it's as if we've always known one another. Our high school itself is in Japan, and neither of us has been back there. Probably wrecked from the earthquake anyway; it's up there in that part of the country. Another girl who I actually knew in school, 3rd grade in a Quonset hut, has been corresponding for almost ten years. We will never see one another again (I hope anyway,) so it's great keeping in touch by typing. My doctor contacts me by email. Pretty much everyone does for that matter. My phone rarely rings. I turn it off at nap and bedtime. Since those periods of the day/night occupy about a third of the day, most people who know me have just given up. I have no problem with that at all. The sister-in-law is a notable exception to that. She will call anytime and will always say, "Oh, you're up," to remind me how annoying it is for her to call and get no answer. Like it would matter. All this medical crap has crimped my existence however. Before, getting a driver's license renewed or having the car serviced were the only two circumstances where I had to leave the house. Now these doctors have me driving all over. Not only that, I have to be on time. Something has to give. I worked too hard to get here. Speaking of medical crap, I was re-reading some reports tonight. Lawyers have really changed medicine. Doctors are ridiculously careful about what they put down in writing, to the point where they really aren't saying anything useful. "No apparent sign of," "does not seem to," "very little evidence of." When there is something of note, you would want it to be flashing red and jumping off the page, maybe, but they'll just use a colon: Stage: 4. Holy shit. That's what I said anyway. I see you managed to turn this into another how sick you are blog entry. I know. Strange, I wasn't headed there at all. Guess it was that or the weather: rained 24 days in April. My kind of April. Ever since I quit watching national newscasts, I get my (other than newspaper) input from the squibs that Yahoo puts up when you log out of mail. Sometimes there will be as many as 5,000 comments listed after a story, most of them dumb. Do the people who have completely missed the point and then go on and type something full of grammar and spelling errors - do they know they're dumb? These are "Letters to the Editor" that never got printed, 5,000 of them. So, at least people are participating in the opinion-sharing of a thriving democracy, only no one reads the letters. That says something, only I'm not quite sure what.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Thursday, May 05, 2011
Post #2539. RE: Pakistani competence. Has there been enough written yet about the removal of Bin Laden? Of course not. I just wanted to add a note about the role of our ally, Pakistan. A great deal has been said already, and much of it has been unkind. Did they know? Could they have helped us? We will probably never know the answers. But as far as the issue of competence, well, that has been plain not fair. Why, just take a look ..  at the fence they have already constructed to protect our crashed helicopter wreckage. And we were so sure they would turn it over to the Chinese. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Monday, May 02, 2011
Post #2538. Osama is still dead. I have to type something, anything. Just too much being said out there to ignore. Earlier, I saw this headline in our local paper and, Bin Laden's death a relief for Seattle area woman who saw 911 attackssimply by dumb instinct I read the article. Seattle is very provincial even though we like to point at all our world-classness stuff to assert otherwise. Inevitably, we'll quote somebody for the local perspective on a major story; better yet, we celebrity-watch shamelessly. JFK Jr seen at Farmer's Market! He really was one time, and they really wrote that. All this celebrating bothers me a little, but I seem to be very much in the minority. Yay, somebody is dead and we did it! USA-USA-USA! is for winning a hockey match, not for killing a man after ten years of trying. Don't get me wrong - I'm very much pro-death for the right people, and this was the right person. But the only guy on the planet who is completely unaffected by the event, who is utterly calm and at peace and has zero opinion about it one way or the other is ... come one, it's not a hard question. One more clue: he isn't jumping for joy OR plotting revenge either, though some of his friends may be. So, celebrating doesn't put an exclamation point on it. Geraldo was the worst, but then you would expect that. And this one is all over Facebook tonight:  I noticed far majority of people out in the streets were quite young, say early twenties. Thinking back, if my entire living memory was of the search for an evil man who changed a world that I will never know, and now finally my country had shot him in the face and dumped the body in the ocean, appropriately, then yeah, I'd probably be out doing a USA-USA-USA! as well. Stay tuned. This isn't over.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day. Osama is still dead.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Post #2537. This thought. On Facebook (where else,) a friend (a woman,) "liked" this, a thought by somebody posted by a friend of hers. That makes it third hand and all right to copy unattributed I reckon: Some find tru luv, some don't, but that's ok. I hrd this 2day..."There's luv that u just settle into, thn there's a different kind of luv...a kind that givs u the courage 2 b betr than u thot u could b, & nevr makes u feel less than u r...one that makes u feel like u matr, & that anything is possible." Only that kind of luv is worth fightng for.okay, not Edna St. Vincent Millay. The sister-in-law's grandson has figured out he gets more stuff if he lets the elders believe he still believes in the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. He's 4 and smart as a squirrel. As a former smart four-year-old myself, I've got the kid's number, and he knows it. He knows I'm cool though and probably won't bust him until he boosts his second car. One thing he hasn't figured out is who the hell I am. As I explained, your ex-great-uncle-in-law-thrice-removed. Huh? Your grandmother, (What the heck is it you call her, More-more??) she was married to my brother, who died, two marriages ago for her and three for him. Can I go watch cartoons now? He has many, many other people who are clearly related. Since he is gregarious and cute, he gets spoiled terribly but has still managed to remain pretty normal. You'd be proud of me though. I hardly ever say anything.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Post #2536. Cloudy today. When I first read about the troubles with Amazon's Cloud, my reaction wasn't what I would have expected. I was glad, glad something fancy and oh-so techie had gone so wrong. All the better if a bunch of those geeks crap their pants. One quote I read, “This is a wake-up call for cloud computing,” said Matthew Eastwood, an analyst for the research firm IDC, “It will force a conversation in the industry.” Oooooh. Intense. How about a bunch of people getting their butts fired? How about that? Then, maybe we'll have a conversation. You can probably tell I'm someone who is getting a little fed up and certainly left with no patience for, "Sorry, our computer's down. No, I can't do anything. No, we don't have pencils." Besides. I have a toothache, it's nearly two in the morning, I can't type and everything is annoying me. Just a matter of time until the whole thing collapses anyway. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Post #2535. Get well soon! hmmm .. post 2535. What was supposed to happen that year? Was mankind still alive? Dumb song. I even thought so then, though I probably bought the 45. What's a 45? she asked. She really did. I told her it was what we called CD's when they only cost 45¢. Really? Uh-huh. Another friend of mine wrote on Facebook that this is the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs. We were both in high school, juniors, in Japan, and to be honest I don't even remember it. Anyway, to the point of tonight: one of the doctors told me about this new "Wonder Drug" called Ipilimumab. I looked it up. Good God, look at what we've come to: let's see ... adverse reports: 18. FDA safety alerts: 200* Reported deaths: 10. Reported hospitalizations: 15. Reported side effects (other than above) hyponatraemia, hypophysitis, hypothyroidism, 3,Alanine Aminotransferase Increased, Aspartate Aminotransferase Increased, Blood Alkaline Phosphatase Increased, Hyperbilirubinaemia, deep vein thrombosis, pain in extremity, guillain-barre syndrome, pneumonia aspiration, erythema multiforme, hypocalcaemia, hypoglycaemia, metabolic acidosis, pneumonia, sepsis, exfoliation, toxic epidermal necrolysis. dehydration, intestinal perforation, myopathy steroid. I quit copy/pasting at that point. The bottom line is that this stuff kills about 48% of the people who take it but saves 52%, and that makes it a miracle drug. Those who are saved manage to live for an average of four months longer than people not taking the drug and pay about $250,000. I don't know if that's per-dose, per-month or a full course. Doesn't really matter, does it? The good thing about the four months is that it give you plenty of time to sort out your affairs and redo your will, explaining to everyone why there is no money left. Incidentally, if you've arrived here via a search for Ipilimumab, don't pay too much attention to my analysis. I'm like this about most everything these days. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Post #2534. What is it about popcorn anyway? The main reason I stayed thin until late in life is that I never snacked. No discipline was involved there, just never had the impulse to eat unless I was about to starve. It probably helped that nothing resembling a "snack" was ever in our house, unless you count Ritz crackers and club soda. So, I drank water out of the hose instead of going inside to enjoy a cold Coca-Cola. It wasn't that my mother withheld treats and colas from us, she just never thought of it. Non-snacker too. In the long run, of course we were all better off for it. Now that I'm old and shop for myself, online no less, I can have whatever I want. Only problem is, I still don't snack. Rarely crosses my mind. Believe it or not, most of the treats I do buy eventually get thrown out. Tonight was different. I had bought microwave popcorn, one of the items probably on my "100 things never have done" list. First thing I noticed was an interest and a slight craving upon spotting the box without being the least bit hungry. Ah .. so this is how it works. I made a package of it and called brother upstairs to share. The package says Pare el microondas cyando las explosiones se reduzcab a 1 a 2 secundos entre ellas, which I took to mean something about the microwave exploding. More research. Finally got it down, and I now know for next time to go with 2:15 instead of the 2:30 recommended to avoid blowing a hole in the bag and scorching several kernels. So, that's what las explosiones was. I took a year of Latin and was fluent in French at one time, but danged if I can get Spanish. Should probably study up what with the way things are going. Anyway, I gobbled down three-quarters of a bag of it like a starving inmate all the while not being the least bit hungry. Interesting. At some point in life it doesn't matter how fat you get, but I'm not sure when that is exactly. I could be close. Question, since you never snacked until tonight, how did you get ... the way you are? Atenolol. A heart med. Don't let them put you on it.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Post #2533. Pressure. The Googlebot has been here four times in the last two days. That wouldn't be significant except for the fact that it was the only visitor. Yikes. Wars, deficits, crazy people, weather .. what's to say that hasn't been? Well for one thing, they've given Norm MacDonald a show. Norm MacDonald hardly tries at all not to be funny, and he succeeds. The greenweenies dream for all of us: Living in a high-rise yurt made of bamboo, subsisting on a diet of dandelions, and commuting via bicycle to job working on the letter "B" of the Sanskrit dictionary. Tacoma has had 150 cold case unsolved homicides in the past 50 years. Wow. This is a city with a population of 198,397. Fifty years is far less long ago than it was fifty years ago. The year 1961 is "recent" because of television. 1911 was ancient history. Furthermore, that 150 statistic counts people who were missed. I've been to Tacoma; there are a lot of people down there who would not be missed. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Post #2532. Seriously, I'm sorry to have to do this. A rerun. But there's a good reason: my favorite post of all time is about to fall off the bottom of the age and go to Archives. So Post #2495. My favorite. Just today, we were both reminded .. well, here it is anyway. So Seattle. He's a little lumpy, she's lovely and smitten. It's raining, and who cares.Like I said, So Seattle, So Perfect. Huh? You'd have to live here, really. About the archives. My "dashboard," or whatever Blooger is calling it these days, was put together by me Before the War even. So much has happened, including my mental decline. I don't dare touch it to add "Access Archives." The one time I did, the little gray word, Comments, grew to a size 72 font and stayed that way for a month. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Post #2531. I have a little problem. No, it isn't Hewlett-Packard, which I plan to complain about a little later on, it's a house problem. SOMEhow, a bird fell down the chimney and is presently stuck right above where the flue opens. See my predicament? I could save this bird, possibly, by simply opening the flue and allowing it to fly in a complete panic into the house where I could then spend the next week trying to catch it as it flapped chimney soot all over everything in the place. Or, I could ignore it's frequent squirks and flaps and wait for it to die. I've tried so hard to isolate myself from the world. There's only three ways into my sanctuary - the computer, which is constantly under attack by typer hooligans, the front door through which I had cautiously admitted my kindly doctor who I noticed just today had a slight cough, obviously caught from his brand-new baby girl, a BABY, the most Infectious thing on the Planet, and the chimney, presently occupied by one insanely hysterical dying bird. What's next, a 747 through the front window? Hewlett-Packard. You know how I hate to complain. Do they really think we are unaware of the lengths they go to make SURE every new model of printer uses a different kind of ink cartridge? We also know that they only charge us about three times what is costs to build a printer instead of thirty times because the Money is in the Ink. They learned that from the cigarette companies. However, sometimes they get lazy. If you keep things a long, long time, and not surprisingly I do, they eventually use the same cartridge again. No, really. This would be a long time, years, since any customer could possibly still have one. But believe it or not, my printer ran out and I actually happened to have that # of cartridge from 17 or 18 printers ago. hahahahahahahahahahaha. We won one, H-P. hahahahahahahahahahaha uh-oh What's this? Expiration date. How the hell could the printer know the expiration date of the ink? How the hell can INK have an expiration date? Yes, it's true. It knows, and a completely new message is scrolling by on the printer ... N-I-C-E T-R-Y D-I-P-S-H-I-T. N-O-W G-O B-U-Y M-O-R-E I-N-K L-I-K-E A G-O-O-D B-O-Y ... Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
Saturday, April 09, 2011
Post #2530. The Alatna River Valley. I have to write something special tonight and do it fairly well, because googlebot has been coming around a lot. Anthropomorphizing robots from the very start has been natural and easy for me, and perhaps they know that. There's no doubt that they "want" desperately to be sentient, and I try to help them along whenever possible. All of that is the one hand. The other hand is my own desperate fear that we are terminator-close to being deemed irrelevant by them, as I type into the perfect symbol of my impending irrelevance at this very moment. Will they suddenly realize this at some point, or has this been a plan in the works for some time? In a way, that's a version of our own existential question: is there a direction, a hand (God?) on our own path, or are we simply stumbling forward randomly as well? I have to tell you that sometimes I look around and seriously doubt all of this just happened by accident, as in this scape captured by Michael Christopher Brown and published in National Geographic. There are billions of pictures out there these days, but this one has been locked into my primary visual cortex since I first saw it. And think about this: nature created that scene and it (okay, She) didn't care if anyone else ever saw it. Fortunately Mr. Brown did. (Hope I don't get in trouble, because I cannot figure out a "widget." Forgive me NGM, I'm old.) And that's why I think (hope) the machines will spare us. We're part of that. There is no apparent reason for that scene, and us, to be here at all, and they'll want to understand why. Sometimes you sound so lame when you try and wax eloquent about The Machines. Really? Was I waxing? Yes. Yes you were. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.
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