Thank GOD I don’t have kids in College

Universityofmissouri

In addition to worrying about their safety, I’d be losing my mind wondering what the hell they were being taught.

I can only imagine how frustrating it would be for me as a parent to not know if my 60 to 80K per year was being spent actually teaching my child something useful in STEM, or “Real Journalism” (as opposed to the yellow journalism we’re accustomed to), or Law.  

I know I’d be PISSED OFF to find that instead of sitting in classes that were on topic or studying their ass off in the library my kid was wasting my money marching with a radicalized inarticulate element preaching nothing but victimhood.

I’d be heartbroken knowing that due to the color of my kid’s skin the members of “The Cause” are guaranteed to turn on my child no matter how supportive of “The Cause” my kid was.  Sooner or later my kid would be cast aside because they no longer served a purpose or no longer met the racial guilt test.

claremontmckenna

Worse would be learning that my kid was being intimidated into participating in protests because otherwise they’d be shunned or punished as the New York Post is reporting.

I’d pray that my child was strong enough to call me saying, “Dad I need to come home, I’m dropping out of college until I can get accepted somewhere education is at the top of the agenda.”

Actually, if my kid called me with that message, I’d be so damn proud I’d be on the next flight to wherever they were, and my rental car would be a freaking U-Haul. We’d turn the move home into an adventure which in itself is always a learning experience.

Columbia

I suspect that a lot of parents are thinking about this stuff right now.

It begs the question, How long will universities last if the paying customers stop paying? What happens when parents tell their kids “Go to the local community college.”  

If I had a kid in Yale, or Columbia, or The University of Missouri I’d take them aside during the Thanksgiving holiday and tell them to come home.

We’d find another college, even if that meant a completely on-line solution or sending them to Europe for their education.

The decision wouldn’t be about racism, it would be completely about the quality of education. The bang for the buck spent, and the appearance that these colleges have lost their direction and with it, their prestige.

Yale

What good is a Columbia, Yale, Claremont or Mizzou degree now? Don’t these degrees fairly shout to business, “Hiring this person will lead to strife and overblown accusations of inequality,” can a business take that kind of risk when they’d be better served hiring an equivalent graduate from Azuza Pacific, The University of Texas, SNHU, or University of Phoenix?

The alumni associations must be pissed off beyond belief.

What must Yale Grads be thinking? I know one, and I owe him a phone call. I’ll have to remember to ask.

You know, American Business has been saying for years that they can’t find qualified American graduates for positions here in the US.

Up to now, I’d dismissed these claims as nothing more than an excuse to hire H1B1 employees in a traitorous attempt to pump up the bottom line at the expense of our country, our workers, and essentially creating a new “slave” class.

In light of recent events, maybe American business has a point. Maybe our colleges and universities aren’t turning out graduates capable of doing the jobs. If that’s the case, then sending your kid to Europe for college is about the only option if you want them to have a shot at getting a job here.

It’s damn scary to think that our country may have fallen that far into the shitter. Have we become a delusional country believing we’re the best, when in fact the sun is rapidly setting on us? Are we doing nothing more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?

If so, what happens now?

3AM

Also known as, “The Soul’s Midnight” 

It’s that time of night (morning) that can either be a whole lot of fun if you’re fucking around with someone or a group of someones, and a good time is being had by all or when you’re heading home from somewhere you shouldn’t have been. (To paraphrase Garth Brooks)

Luckily in my life I’ve had both of those situations. I’ve been toying with a book of rules to observe if you’re involved with the latter.  


Not my Brand

Helpful hint: Shower, YES! Make sure you bring your own brand of soap and don’t scrub your pits. You can scrub the skank off your nether regions and body leaving them fresh as a daisy, don’t bother with your hair or pits because after a hard day at work you aren’t supposed to smell like you just stepped out of a shower.

On the other hand you don’t want the smell of someone else’s perfume on you when you snuggle into bed with your spouse. This method splits the difference leaving you smelling just about like you should.

If you forget, and scrub all over, all is not lost. Have a nice long J/O session in your car, after you get off, relax a few minutes and let your natural smell develop. Just don’t get caught by the local cops looking for perverts.

If on the other hand you’ve forgotten your normal brand of soap… Brother, You’re on your own and may God have mercy on your soul.


Angel of Death

The Urban dictionary defines Soul’s Midnight a bit differently than I do.

Soul’s Midnight

3AM; more specifically when clubs close and everyone eating at 24-hour diners should vacate lest they be subjected to the deluge of belligerent glitter-covered drunkards and party girls exiting said clubs.
If it’s 2:58, you’re fine. If it’s 2:59, start running. You don’t want to be in the Denny’s parking lot for Soul’s Midnight.

My primary definition has an older, darker, meaning. This was the time of night when hospital staff noticed more people died.

There are other possibilities for why you might be up at this hour.

afterparty

You could be a bartender coming home from a your shift.  <— Count your money AFTER you’ve gotten home.

You could be awakened by a dog who needs to go out <— Not so bad, way better than waking up to a mess.

You could wake up from a nightmare and decide after tossing & turning from the adrenaline hit that you might as well just get up. Not so much from the adrenaline but because your brain rebooted in the full ON position and you’re unable to stop thinking about the shit that has you worried.

Sadly, it’s a combination of 2 and 3 on tonite’s agenda.

NPH

I’d woken up from a slight nightmare, and I think because a music playlist finished. I was just settling back to sleep when I realized the dog was at the side of the bed looking at me.

Okay pup, let me get something on; Dog has gone down the hall at a good clip; OR NOT. I haul my carcass out of bed, my naughty bits pulling up tight from the cold.

“Damn! what the hell is the temp in this place, 50 below?”

I open the door, the dog trots down the stairs into the backyard.  I wait for a minute or two but when the dog is heard ralphing I figure he’s going to be a while.

I close the door, I’m officially awake! 

I crank the thermostat to warm the house to something slightly warmer than the surface temperature of Pluto.

After trying the usual distractions, Here I sit.

I DONT NORMALLY WATCH PORN BUT WHEN I DO I DO IT LIVE

On the plus side I rediscovered a 3 hour long porn I’d forgotten about. I guess I should wander through the porn collection more often. This film has some fun scenes, and I think I’m going to dig out the DVD and re-rip it so that the scene markers are preserved. As it is now, all you can do with the file is fast forward. It might be nice to be able to use the “Next” scene function.

I like switching on porn at this hour because there’s nothing more celebratory of life, than ropey jets of cum shooting across a room. (paraphrasing that line, with thanks to Henry Rollins.) 

I popped out to some “On-line” hangouts some acquaintances are on late at night. No-one was up, or if they were they were, they were in private chats or fooling around in real life instead. So much for the live show and conversation.

I’d fire off the re-ripping of the DVD right now but I’d wake the rest of the household trying to find the thing, then I’d be listening for the drive to spin down signaling that the machine was finished.

I’m a little OCD about that kind of thing. I guess that the fear of the computer actually cooking while “cooking” on the task I set it keeps me cat napping instead of sleeping.

Nah, I’ll start that process tomorrow. 

So what to do now?

SteamingPileoPoo

Work at making ropey jets of cum??  I know as soon as I get into it, there will be a scratch at the door. Speaking of which, the dog should have been back by now. Ahh and of course the other dog wants out. 

Okay.

Oh Thanks #2 dog! Leaving poo neatly centered in the dirt right off the back stair, while qualifying as doing your business in the yard, means that I have to do Poo patrol before #1 dog comes back in and steps in it.  #1 doesn’t see very well at night anymore.

Not my preferred method of spending the hour between 3am and 4am but at least now I am looking forward to getting back into my nice warm bed and falling asleep.

Finish poo patrol. Turn off the lights. Lock the door. Head for bedroom.

#1 & #2 dogs are on their cushions asleep already. They’re snoring and as I step over them to get to my bed, they both give me the “Oh, you’re still up?” look.

Ya know Dogs…

Sometimes you guys are real jackasses!

I see a treat shortage in your immediate future.

O Boy! That was an annoying FAIL!

Mac app store 100626106 primary idge

Sometimes even the best of systems gets hoisted by its own petard.

I was using my computer the other day and moved from one room to the other. I got distracted and my computer went to sleep. Situation normal, this chain of events happens all the time.

Except when I came back woke my computer and tried to fire up a program that I use off & on almost every day.

Then my computer said

“This program is damaged and can’t be opened. Delete the program and download it again from the App Store.”

I tried another program,

“Licensing Error. A license was found but it does not appear to be for this computer.”

And another program,

“This program was purchased on another computer. Please enter your ID to authorize this program for use with this computer.”

Whoa! Something is seriously wrong.

OK

Logoist

Rebooting!

Same problem, and then I realize the issue is only with programs that I’ve  purchased from the Apple App Store. Okay, I re-enter my app store ID, then I’m told that’s not the right ID. I power down the machine and try again. It shouldn’t have mattered and it didn’t, but I wanted a pristine system to begin troubleshooting.

After a few more minutes, I get the App Store to accept my ID by specifically telling the App Store to log me out then logging back in. Progress!

I still can’t get any programs from the App Store to work. I pick one that doesn’t store a lot of data, for example a utility instead of my checkbook program, then delete it.

The App Store shows that the program is available for download / installation.

I download it and try to execute it.

“This program is damaged and can’t be opened. Delete the program and download it again from the App Store.”

OK WTF?

I call Apple.

After fighting through their “Helpful voice prompt with genuine people personality” I get hold of someone in iTunes support. Because guess what? There doesn’t seem to be a selection that Mr. Roboto understands as needing help with the Application Store.

You’d think that would be one of the options they offer at a top level menu… You’d be dead wrong!

Anyhow, I get transferred to a nice person who works in the app store help department and after walking through all the steps that I tried on my own he’s really confused too.

I pick another program and delete it while he’s on the line, then I re-download this one and whadaya know? It works.

I ask if there’s something going on in the App Store. He checks and says, “Nope, nothing amiss for the past 8 hours.”

Okay…

I delete and reinstall every program I’ve purchased from the App Store. ALL but one is working again. The one I’m having problems with is a problem with that piece of software and the company admits they’ve got a problem they’re working to resolve on their website.

I go on with my day and think, “That was damn strange.”


This morning I see an article in Computerworld, Lapsed Apple certificate triggers massive Mac app fiasco. I read the article and think… “No Shit?”

There’s always been a slight tightness in the pit of my stomach about using cloud application stores.

I categorically refuse to use the Adobe cloud mostly because the cost is prohibitively high.

I do use the Microsoft Office cloud based suite because it’s cheap and efficient. Even if it can’t “phone home” for a while the programs still work and then degrade gracefully.

I never in my wildest dreams thought about programs not only refusing to launch, but also giving completely erroneous information about what the heck their problem was because of a lapsed security certificate.  

Apple could have, and should have given a message that specifically said the certificate was expired. Then when they fixed the certificate everything should have been updated and we’d have been inconvenienced, but at least the customers wouldn’t have been wasting time deleting and reinstalling software.

I like the opening paragraphs of the Computerworld article.

“A lapsed Apple digital certificate today triggered a massive app fiasco that prevented Mac users from running software they’d purchased from the Mac App Store.

“Whenever you download an app from the Mac App Store, the app provides a cryptographically-signed receipt,” explained Paul Haddad, a co-founder of Tapbots, the company behind the popular Tweetbot Twitter client, in an email reply to questions today. “These receipts are signed with various certificates with different expiration dates. One of those is the ‘Mac App Store Receipt Signing;’ that expires every two years. That certificate expired on ‘Nov 11 21:58:01 2015 GMT,’ which caused most existing App Store receipts to no longer be considered valid.”

Whoops.

The result: Bedlam.”

Bedlam

Understatement, but Bedlam is a great word that isn’t used much these days.

It does make me rethink using the App Store. Perhaps, I’d be better off going back to the old way of doing things.

On the one hand the App store means that I only have my credit card registered on one site, the old way I’d have my card spread around the internet like a $2 whore.

Maybe software vendors could start using Bitcoin, so we don’t have to expose our credit card info?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA!  

Yeah, I’m not holding my breath…