Author: wwducat

About: Writer, Technology guy, Photographer, Possibly EX-Software QA Engineer, Worker Bee. Interests: SCUBA, Working out, Friends, New Views, New Vistas, Photography
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Sigh…

You know, lately every time I want to go somewhere it’s always a pain in the ass.

Of course it’s not actually just because I’m trying to go somewhere. It’s that I’m trying to go somewhere and that requires that I get in the car.

A couple of weeks ago I needed brakes. OK I knew it had been a long time… Like NEVER! Since the brakes had been done. 7 years and 100,000 miles later isn’t all that bad.

Unfortunately that’s where the mechanic stopped in his diagnostics. Instead of throughly checking out the whole braking system, including the ABS system, the mechanic thought, “Customer reports squealing / howl, brake pads are near end of life, we’re done.”

No doubt the computer(s) said, “Yup, everything is good, no errors posted,” and because of the pressure to turn vehicles over in his service bay, the mechanic disregarded the rest of the customer report.

The howl only happens in the morning.
It only happens once right after the car is pulled out of the driveway.
The sound is more a howl than a squeal.

Sigh…

This morning the howl started then stopped. I went to my first stop then I’m heading to my next stop and there’s the howl again along with the distinct smell of something burning.

Okaaaayyy! NOT GOOD!

Cancel the rest of my day! Get the car repair place on the phone and tell them I need to get my car back in, and they need to put me in a rental. Thankfully, the repair place is pretty accommodating.

One flatbed tow truck ride later, I’m at the repair place handing them the keys to my car. They’re handing me the keys to a brand new 328i and I’m on my way again. Now lets see if I can pick up the pieces of my day and get something productive done.

I’ve discovered that I don’t like BMW automatic transmissions, they have a very weird shifting pattern, especially if you’re heading up a hill. On the plus side, I’ve got a nice ride for a few days.

I have a bad feeling that this is going to be another expensive repair.

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Oh For Goodness Sake!

The tech news is literally whipping itself into a foamy frothy santorum today over the RUMOR that the iPhone 7 will do away with the 3.5mm headphone jack.

OMG! This is worse that a nuclear attack! According to some of the moronic pundits.

Really?

So you’re going to have to buy an adapter or pay for headphones that have an adapter or special connector? That’s got your panties in a twist? Big Deal!

A few thoughts:

It’s a rumor, that means it may or may not be true.

When was the last time you really used that 3.5mm port? Is it going to be that big a loss?

With Bluetooth headsets becoming more common, packing all day battery life, and audio quality that rivals all but the highest end headsets, is this really gonna bring your world to a crashing end?

Given that the current iPhone 6s boasts a water resistance that borders on waterproof doesn’t it make sense that apple is going to minimize the number of openings in the phone?

After all you don’t have to seal what you never opened in the first place.

Personally I’d take waterproof and a bigger battery over a 3.5mm headphone jack I rarely use. I’m more concerned about the rumored thinning of the iPhone itself. I happen to have an iPhone 5s. I like the size, I like the shape, and the edges. I like it’s gripability.

I’m not overly enamoured of the iPhone 6 shape and rounded edges, I think it’s harder to hold onto, and knowing me, I’m for more likely to have the thing go crashing to the floor, no doubt after a really humorous juggling act.

Making the phone thinner is probably not going to help me out.

That being said, I’ll patiently wait for the iPhone 7 “reveal” in 2016 because until you actually see the product, there’s no need to freak out about it.

I don’t know who Dan Savage is having sex with… But if santorum is common in his life, he needs to find another partner or learn better hygiene.

Yeah you’re never going to wash these images out of your brain.

Slave! To my bed, bring the lube!

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I was about the say there wasn’t much news.

I scanned the headlines over my first cup of coffee this morning, and thought, “Nothing New.”

Then it hit me I’ve become inured to the humdrum normalcy of protests, active shooters and people being insane.

I’m amazed how quickly that happens.

Black Lives Matter are still protesting. Even with the addition of Jesse Jackson and the events in Chicago, their protest didn’t even cause a twitch on my radar. I still believe that as a group they’re pretty irrelevant, their point is overblown, and the movement itself is built on a narrative of lies.

Ironically, the one shooting that BLM might actually have a valid point about is the Chicago shooting. Unfortunately, their constant droning over black men that actually did take the cops on, and lost, has overshadowed potentially valid cases of police crossing the line. Which suggests that there are probably not as many cases of “Cops gone wild” in the United States as the BLM movement would have us believe.

An active shooter in a planned parenthood clinic in Colorado didn’t cause much of a twitch on my radar. What did catch my attention was that LAPD heightened security around all Planned Parenthood Clinics in Los Angeles. Uhh LAPD I think, regardless of what the Southern Poverty Law Center would have you believe, Pro-Lifers are probably not as likely to execute co-ordinated terrorist attacks as say, Daesh.

The insanity on US college campuses isn’t causing any twitches either. There have been reports of “Troll” sites setting up White Safe Spaces on the internet. Turns out the “Troll” sites are actually real. Many of them have been set up by non-white students out of concern for their white friends, who have weathered hostility and have no places to even discuss their concerns or feelings.

The investigation into the Paris attack continues. Brussels was locked down for much of the week. Sweden and Norway have announced that they are going to reduce the number of refugees they accept. Since Sweden is at maximum capacity, I was wondering how they’re going to accept anyone else at all. Then I read Swedish authorities are considering renting cruise ships to house the refugees. Once again, I wonder if I could be a refugee. Cruise ships? Ski Resorts? Beautiful forest retreats? Sounds like a nice situation to me.

The thing that blows my mind about all of this is how easily and quickly so much becomes… if not unimportant, relegated to the background noise of our lives.

I suppose it’s a function of the over-saturation of media in our lives. That’s what I hope it is, I’d hate to think that I can become jaded after just a few news cycles.

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Black Friday

no, No, NO!

This is not for me. I have no desire to deal with crowds anymore stomping on my feet as we all trudge to the next so-called bargain.

Crowds are one of those things I just can’t take as I’ve gotten older. Disneyland is a nightmare for me. Enclosed malls during mall wide sales or Black Friday are horrific.

So what little christmas shopping I do, I prefer to do on a weekday with a friend of mine and we’ll turn it into a lunch, drinks, and a completely enjoyable shopping experience because we’re at the shopping center for lunch, not the actual shopping.

I’ve seen images of the crowds wrapping around electronic and toy stores. I can’t help but notice how very desperate the people in line look. Last night the news was showing people waiting to get a 49” TV for $149. All I could think was, “Really?” Do they have any idea about the quality of the image or is it just about the size?

I’ve got a 55” I bought in 2009 and I shopped TVs for a long time before deciding on this one. I can’t imagine just seeing a “deal” and running out to stand in line hoping that I’d be one of the lucky people to grab the TV before they sold out.

Back in ancient times… a.k.a. the ‘80s I remember looking forward to shopping with a group of friends on what has become known as Black Friday. We’d go out, and enjoy wandering the malls together. Back then, it wasn’t as crazy as it is now. The parking wasn’t a demolition derby and walking through a lot wasn’t taking your life in your hands, people were still generally polite and obeyed the rules of the road. I guess those days gone forever.

Ahh, nostalgia.

I did take advantage of one Black Friday deal, I purchased a little bit of software at 1/2 off. I’d been hemming and hawing at it’s normal price but then seeing the price this morning I figured aww what the hell.

I guess that means I’m not completely untainted but at least I wasn’t standing in line with a crowd.

Enjoy your shopping.

You can all thank me for being one less person on the road.

Cash donations gratefully accepted!

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Happy Gobble Day!

Turkey

Taking a break in the Thanksgiving preparation.

For many years I’ve headed to friends for the turkey, pie, lots of laughs and great company. This year the cold from hell is kicking my butt and the butt of my other half. 

We decided that it was probably best that we stay home this year.

The reasons were simple. We’re both a bit cranky, we didn’t want to contaminate anyone else, and if we stay home we can stay comfy in our sweats, and drink as much as we want to dull the coughing and pain.

Since I’m the more functional of the two of us, the cooking has fallen to me.

I have a nice album playing quietly in the background, Divenire by Ludovico Einaudi. I think there’s some Mozart a bit later and after that I have no clue. one nice thing about iTunes is the ability to tell it to pick random music within a genre.

Divenire

There’s a nice turkey breast in the oven, with sweet potatoes, and I’ll be setting the table for myself and the other half with some rolls, green beans, a nice salad some wine, and yes… there will be pie.

We’ll probably sit on the couch for dinner watching a movie with our feet up, snuggled up in our favorite blankets.

It’s overcast here. There’ve even been a few errant snow flakes but nothing serious and the snow is melting as soon as it hits the ground.

Our Thanksgiving may not be a fancy one, but this year this is what works for us.

I hope you all are having exactly the day that you want.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.