Month: January 2016

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Just learned something interesting

I have two blogging programs that I use regularly.

The one I’m using right now is reliable and a workhorse but sometimes it’s a bit more than I really need and its interface is dated and perhaps a little “busy” when I’m interested in just typing.

The Other Blogging program is simple and features the newer “Open” design that many programs are moving to. The newer programs seem to be leaning toward minimalist icons in the menu, and a generally Spartan appearance. I like the look and feel of the newer interfaces, as a result I gravitate toward programs that are using the Spartan look.

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Which leads me to some of the problems that new software can exhibit…

Software that’s a bit buggy, or in this case a lot buggy. The newer program has some issues with its spellcheck. “Issues” is me being polite.

Their implementation of spell check is almost completely wrong. A couple of weeks ago I went to great lengths to document how wrong they were.

Oh I was nice. I’d noticed the problems and when to their website to see if there was an estimated date when they’d have it fixed. On their site I saw many people leaving messages about things not working right but no-one was really specific.

The impression I got from the replies the company was writing, was that they didn’t understand what the users were complaining about.

I’m an OLD ASS SQA guy. 

So I figured I’d define the problem in a way that the programmers would understand.

I opened my copy of their program and started checking and unchecking options in the spellcheck system. Then I was doing screen capture and boiling down my procedure to recreate the problems into five or six steps. I put it all together and sent it off to the person at their company who takes care of these sorts of things.

I got a very nice email back saying, “Thank you, we get it now, and we’re working to fix the problem.”

“Cool,” I think.

Then I set all the settings back to my preferred conditions in their program and went on with my life.

Then, over the past couple of days I’ve been firing up the program to write quick little blogs. The program is highlighting some spelling errors but not others. I didn’t notice the inconsistency until this morning. The other thing the program is doing is this. It’s autocorrecting things as I type and doing that wrong!

I go back re-check the settings and confirm that indeed, the little check marks are having absolutely no effect. Which means another bug report to the company and that when they update the program they may have to have the customers do a complete uninstallation and then reinstall the program. That’s seriously ugly! Somewhere along the line, either using the program or changing the settings, the program has lost control of it’s preferences file.

Uh OH!  This means that Blogs I’ve written over the past few days are probably horribly screwed up!

Sure enough, I go out to the blog site and find that not only did the program not schedule things right, it also did some really bad things to spelling in the blogs posted over the last couple of days. 

So I’m falling back to the reliable old workhorse until the programmers get a handle on the defects in the new program.

Maybe I’ll hit the manufacturer of the new blogging program, up for a job. They could use my assistance!

 

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The dish is clear

I just realized that I’d blogged every day of December. That’s a first!

I don’t think the content of all 31 days was particularly stellar but then again; have ya read the New York Times lately?

I suppose I could try and shame them, as is our custom now. But somehow I think it would be a waste of time to try to shame the shameless.

Moving on…

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Snow clearing was work, but not painful. The sun and warmer temps helped a lot. The snow is mostly powder.

We’ve already had snow players driving to the end of our street to play in the “no play” flood control zone.

The most disconcerting of the players, was the group of Asians driving by taking pictures of us and our homes waving and smiling like they were on a ride a Disneyland.

I thought about charging them admission, I could use the money!

At least they’re respectful even if they seem unclear that this is a neighborhood, and we haven’t cleared driveways and the street so that they could come up and play. On the plus side, they don’t leave trash and they’re generally very pleasant.

There are other groups who are, shall we say, ASSHOLES!

The neighborhood is bracing for the inevitable onslaught this weekend. Some of the neighbors are putting up chains across their driveways and others have parked their 2nd vehicle sideways in their driveway to prevent snow players from parking.

As a note, it’s not the parking so much that we mind. It’s folks getting stuck in our driveways then spinning their tires until they’ve torn up the pavement or in some cases had their cars slide uncontrolled into our cars.

The best one I’ve heard; ( I don’t know if this is rumor or cautionary tale, I can’t confirm it or when it was supposed to have happened, ) was the car that slid down a guys driveway and took out his garage door and 4 Harleys sitting in the garage.

The folks in the car abandoned it, and ran down the road. It’s 20° F, they’ve got small kids, and must be at least 20 miles from home. (Assumed because if they lived here the wouldn’t be parking in someone else’s driveway to play in the snow.) So running down the road abandoning the car, they’re planning to… what? Cops rounded ‘em up and made them own-up to their crime.

Even if the story is a cautionary tale, the sad part is that I could see it happening. After all I’ve had multiple confrontations in my own driveway.

There is NOTHING more irritating than having your car warming up in the driveway, clearing the last bits of snow and ice from the end of your driveway, then getting into your car to go to work and having someone come screaming in behind you thinking they can park and you’ll drive your car around them.

Uhh NO, that’s not how this works!

We’ve heard as of this afternoon that the police are already ticketing and moving folks along to the designated play areas. So it looks like they’ve taken the complaints we made last year seriously.

The sad thing is that generally if people are polite and don’t trash the place we really don’t mind folks playing around our homes or in the open spaces or lots around town. Usually, you’d think of those places as “locals only” you know, kids from the neighborhood, but there’s always room for a few more in a snow fort or snowball fight.

The problem is the local kids are often displaced when the traffic snarls and 1000 people try to occupy a 60 x 60 foot lot. The folks from off the hill just don’t seem to get that nobody has any fun then.

Locals snowboard in the early dawn hours. Local kids play in the snow before 9am, then go home. It reminds me of when I lived in Huntington Beach. The locals surfed before 8 every day. Then the crowds came and no-one had fun.

I mean how can you surf when the surfboards are so thick in the water that you could walk on them from Huntington Beach to Laguna Beach and never get your feet wet.

We’ll know on Friday afternoon just how much police presence we’re going to have for the weekend.

It will be a good winter as long as I don’t have anybody wave a gun at me.

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There Be Snow in the hills

Enough snow in fact that my satellite TV and internet are down. Ahhh well.

How am I posting this?

Phone HotSpot! I love it when technology works as it’s supposed to. Although I would like to know why my computer refuses to disconnect from my phone when I command it to.

I suppose that’s better than the other way around.

I have no idea how long the satellite dishes will be covered. I know, I could go uncover them… I would except they’re on the roof and right now I can’t get to them.

On the plus side I kinda like being forced to be quiet. The TV isn’t telling me about traffic accidents or car chases and since I have to think about getting on the internet, I’m more mindful about what I do when I fire up the hotspot.

I don’t think I’d want to be this way all the time, but it’s nice to have a break.

I’m off to shovel snow! I’ve got someone waiting on me to throw snowballs.

 

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Cocktail / Dinner Party Don’ts

Discussing, politics, religion, & the family doctor at social gatherings… BIG social no-no’s!

Audrey-Hepburn-cocktail-partyI was at a dinner party the other night.  It was nice until someone assumed that everyone in the crowd would be voting for Hillary!  I corrected him, simply saying that I wasn’t. Then he called me a misogynist because I’m not on the Hillary bandwagon.  Hey, I’m not voting for Trump either!

In hindsight, since the word misogynist rolled off the guys tongue with the same venom as the word “Racist” I probably should have kept my mouth shut.

I didn’t!

I asked this person to explain their logic.  Things went down hill from there, I really need to learn how to disengage, or better yet not engage at all!
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This person explained that is was time for America to have a woman president.

He went on to justify that statement by saying European countries had elected women leaders. I asked how he could justify voting for Hillary when we know she’s lied about at least one issue of national security regarding her email server, and that the FBI is currently investigating her.

I also pointed out that if she were a man, or Republican, or a citizen like everyone in the room, she’d be out of the presidential race and likely in jail. The response was, “Hillary is better than Trump.”

“What about Fiorina,” I asked.

“She’s a Republican!”

Hillary-Clinton.pngAt which point, I pointed out that his choice of Hillary was in fact not based simply on the fact that America needed a woman president but party politics.

Then the guy tried to “WIN” the conversation by loudly asking me again if I was a misogynist and accused me of being afraid of a woman president.  I told him that I thought his attitude was based in misandry and given that he was a man I found that quite ironic.

Thinking about it… That was when I should have stopped.

He didn’t understand what I’d said, so I should have realized I was having a war of wits with and unarmed person.

The discussion, such as it was, devolved into his pronouncements that no-one should have guns and everyone in America was afraid.  I told him I thought that he was overstating the issue. Especially considering that Munich was currently on lockdown due to threats from ISIS. And that in the wake of Paris, and San Bernardino perhaps being prudent and more aware of our surroundings was not a bad idea.

His rather angry response was to tell me that being alert and aware of your surroundings, or preparing for things like fire, or earthquake, and more recently jihadi attacks, by noting things such as exits in a public place is paranoid and demonstrative of the cowardice of America.

Therefore I was paranoid and a coward. Uhhh WOW!

Justice-in-the-Form-of-a-New-Law-Served-to-PA-Crime-VictimsI pointedly asked him if he really thought it was paranoid to take just the slightest moment to note exits in case of an emergency. He responded that even if terrorists came into a restaurant shooting he’d be ok getting shot.

My brain rebooted.

In my world view  you never just lay down and die, especially not when you have options, like the ability to retreat.

DUDE-WTF-IS-WRONG-WITH-YOUI asked him to explain himself and honestly was curious about the foundations of his belief,  because that mindset is so completely Alien to me.

He started spouting circular and rhetorical talking points that led me to believe he worked for the progressive Democrat movement. After several rotations of the talking points, suddenly he threw in people don’t need to carry guns.

I said what?

Then I realized he was referring to the new Texas open carry law, and that somehow in his world view, now everyone was carrying guns all the time everywhere. I even pointed out that people exactly like him had managed to take the right of open carry away from their fellow citizens in California.

I kept asking questions and he kept parroting the progressive liberal talking points. It became very clear that he wasn’t actually thinking. I have no problem with people having differing opinions from mine, I have a real problem with people regurgitating stuff that they’ve not really thought about.

moderate-alcohol-consumption-beneficialGranted there was some alcohol involved and somewhere in my brain there was a diagnostic running that was questioning if I was drunk and being an ass.

The little boy in me said “He Started it!”

I’d decided to disengage because I was tired of making points that he tried to erase by parroting canned talking points, but being unable to discuss or expound on any of those points.

Later, It occurred to me that this person had probably never in his entire live been in a situation where they were the least bit on the edge. His world experiences were so safe or he was so oblivious, that he actually believed he was safe from everything all the time. This is a person who believes they don’t have to have an earthquake kit because the government will be there to make everything fine, instantly.

At that moment, I wasn’t able to look at this person with anything but contempt. I saw the guy as prey, a sheep, weak, and someone that I wouldn’t miss if I never saw him again. If an earthquake had happened at that exact moment, I’d have done nothing to ensure his safety. Sheep die all the time…

Things really took a turn towards the surreal when my other half told the guy he was being an ass by not allowing me or anyone else to complete a sentence without interruption.

The other half even said I wasn’t being an Ass, but that the other guy was. I began looking for signs I’d entered an alternate universe, I didn’t find any so…

Surprise Surprise Surprise! I’m not a complete asshole!

That my other half took a side like that, surprised the hell out of me

Normally I’m allowed to make an ass of myself without comment. On rare occasion I’m  told I’m being an asshole, and that I need to shut up.

In this situation apparently, my only fault was answering someone who was clearly interested in a battle of wits, they thought they’d win.

They weren’t prepared to have someone say, “Defend your opinions.”

I was really worried that the other half was pissed at me. I asked about it and was told it wasn’t me.

Church Lady isn't that specialA friend reminded me that I should have dropped to my Southern upbringing and simply avoided the whole conversation with;

“How nice” or “Bless your heart”

That’s really good advice and I’ll be taking it next time.

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I’m Awake!!!

1:20 am.

The other half was wheezing at just the right frequency that the mattress was resonating and amplifying the sound. I’ve been asleep for about 2 hours.

I briefly consider the application of the large fluffy pillow! Nah, I’m not sleep deprived enough to be able to carry off the role of distressed spouse for the cops. They’d all know I did it and knew what I was doing.

If I wake the other half up telling them to roll over because they’re snoring, I’ll get “I’m not asleep.”

I know if I move around too much the dog will wake up and want to go out.

I lay there trying to get back to sleep then realize now, I have to take a piss. DAMN!

Alright!

I get out of bed, cold air hits my balls, and I suddenly have a swollen vulva where my balls used to hang. The dog is already heading down the hall to the back door.

When I open the back door, a breeze blows in that is so cold it would make the ice planet Hoth seem like a tropical paradise. I’m looking around for my Tauntaun.

I’m VERY awake! I’m also rethinking this whole house in the mountians thing. Maybe a house in Hawaii would be better.

Dog pacing outside looking for “The Spot”. He’s going to be a while, I head back to the bathroom and relieve myself. Grab a bathrobe and wait for the dog to finish.

1:50 am.

Dog finally ready to come back in.

Back to bed, but I’m awake. I guess that whole thing about looking at computer screens making it hard to sleep is for real. I was writing this on the iPad.

2:48 am.

I fall asleep.