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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Bullet Dodged – Ebola in America appears under control

ebola

Not that my faith in our Government response is restored.

I’m glad that those who tested positive for ebola are on the mend.  I’m glad that the folks in TX don’t seem to have an outbreak on their hands.

Even though there is a Doctor in NY that tested positive for the disease. He was self monitoring as he was supposed to do. He was perhaps a little lax in that he was feeling a bit puny, but honestly I can see him perhaps chalking the fatigue up to jet lag. Once he realized he was symptomatic, he did the right thing.

I think I would have preferred that he be held in a quarantine situation, even if it was a home quarantine for the incubation period of the disease. On the other hand, were all travelers from affected areas banned, we’d have never had the issue in NY or TX in the first place. 

All that being said, we’ve been lucky. If ebola was more contagious, or airborne we’d be looking at a very different situation.

The best thing to happen from all of this insanity is that questions are being asked.

Procedures and policies are being reviewed and perhaps this whole event will serve as a reminder that our ability to travel the world in just a day or two does come at a price.  I’m happy to see that our airports are increasing their readiness for the possibility of contagious diseases. It’s prudent, reasonable, and serves to protect not only Americans but also international travelers from all countries who may be changing planes at one of our airports.

I was recently talking with friends who travel internationally often.

I’m not talking about travel to Europe or Japan. I’m talking about travel to tropical countries where there are diseases that can really do you harm or kill you.

Most of my friends don’t give it a thought. They don’t even discuss these trips with their doctor either before they leave or after they return. I’ll grant you, for some of these tropical diseases there are no vaccines, but for many there are.

When I travel on a dive trip, I’ll typically call my doctor, tell him where I’m going and ask if there are any boosters or vaccines I should have before I go.  A day or two later my Doctor calls me back and either says I’m good to go, or I should have X, Y, & Z updated or administered. Since I’m usually working with a long lead time prior to the trip, I’ve got plenty of time to get to see the Doc and have the vaccine or boosters at full effectiveness before I leave. To me, this is simply common sense. Apparently, lots of people don’t think about it.  

Heck, I even have a copy of my vaccination record in my passport. I figure if’ I’m taken ill while traveling, at least the local physicians might be able to eliminate the diseases I’ve been vaccinated against while they’re trying to figure out what’s wrong. Again, it’s about planning for the worst and generally having the best of possible situations.

ZombieApocalypse

After chatting with my friends, several of them decided to check with their doctors prior to their next eco-trips.

I hope that more people are paying attention to their vaccinations, and to their travel destinations. Unless you’re someone that can render aid to a disease stricken area, you have no business going there. Change your plans, why risk catching something or bringing something back? 

On the other hand, if The Zombie Apocalypse has to start anywhere, I hope it starts in TX.

Those folks are good shots, well armed, and I doubt seriously the Zombies would have a chance! 

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I never saw this coming – To our neighbor Canada

Asshole

I watched in stunned silence, the events unfolding in Canada.

My heart goes out to the Canadians.

I hope the Canadians don’t change the way they do things.  

Goodguy

Their Parliament building is beautifully open, unlike our public buildings, their buildings don’t have the forbidding feel of an armed camp.

Many years ago, I was in Washington DC and remember vividly that Pennsylvania Avenue was busy.

Honored

There were cars, and trucks, and people just going about their business.  I remember standing next to the wrought iron fence and being fascinated to look at the President’s actual house.

I was thrilled to walk up the steps of Congress and to see all the historical and modern buildings unimpeded as is my right as an American citizen.

NathanCirilloFuneral

This was in the years before fear came to rule us.

In the initial images of the Canadian Parliament I was struck by the freedom of access. I remembered the joy I’d felt to live in a free country when I visited my capital all those years ago.

I hope Canada doesn’t succumb to the same fear that has made our seat of government so inhospitable. 

CirilloPups

I’ve heard already that; there are people in Canada trying to use the tragedy to increase gun restrictions.

Canadians have obviously given a lot of consideration and thought to balancing the rights of hunters and shooting enthusiasts against the desire to insure public safety. While I may not agree with all the Canadian regulations, I respect, and even admire to some extent, the system you have in place.

Canada, don’t let this single heinous incident cause you to jump to conclusions about anything.

CanadianParliament

My Friends, you lost your innocence today, and a good man. Remember that another good man put a stop to the insanity before it got much further.

Take time, bury your honored dead, tend to the wounded, and know that you southern neighbors understand, and you’re all in our prayers.

I sincerely hope that you don’t change.

To the Jihadists…

Your day is coming, you’ll not be able to hide, you’ll find no mercy, no rest, no water, no food, no love, nor hate; you’ll be hunted like vermin and die in filth. On the day the last of you has his brains spattered on barren sand, the world will rejoice and you’ll be wiped from the history books like a vile dream.

That is your legacy today, it’s not too late. Beat your weapons into plowshares and the world will help you plant a future.

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President Stompy foot just doesn’t get it does he?

TPresObamahe president has called for calm, and trust in the face of ebola.

He’s cautioning the American public not to give into hysteria. 

Really?

Mr President, perhaps people would be more willing to trust you, your administration, and the government in general if you hadn’t lied to us again and again.

Just a few weeks ago you and the CDC said that ebola was hard to catch. Then we have someone come in from a country that honestly should have been on a restricted travel list and he’s sick. Then he’s at a hospital and dies, now two nurses have tested positive for ebola.

Protocols?

So Stompie, is this disease hard to catch or has your arrogance already killed thousands?

The math of a simple geometric progression is scary enough, but the potential for spread of this disease in a densely packed locale like a city is terrifying, especially since the fixed ratio is likely to be more like three or four if you account for family units or co-workers.

Most people think of the series 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128. That’s a fixed ratio of 2, a fixed ratio of 3 yields something like 1, 3, 9, 27, 81, 243, 729, 2187. A fixed ratio of 4 gives you 1, 4, 16, 64, 256, 1024, 4096, 16384.

It’s not unreasonable for the American people to ask if the genie is already out of the bottle. A sick nurse, on two flights in a closed environment at close quarters with a minimum of 140 other people…  Gee, that sounds like a freaking party! Sign me the fuck up! I’m surprised as hell that others aren’t showing symptoms, but the incubation period is still young!

Djin

You said, Mr. President, that you didn’t think we’d need an ebola tsar, yet you’ve assigned one.

You said the CDC had it under control, but they’ve said they screwed up.

You’ve said that the troops we’re sending to Africa to battle ebola will not have contact with sick people, but now we’re learning that apparently they are going to be assisting sick folks in the temporary hospitals.  What are you going to do if our troops get sick? You’re needlessly exposing our troops to a situation that they shouldn’t be in.

You’re concerned about imposing a travel ban because we need to help the people of Africa. You’ve told us that a travel ban will harm the people of Africa by restricting the flow of aid, that’s dishonest on it’s face. We can send all the aid we want to Africa, we just don’t have to allow anyone from the restricted areas to COME HERE.

Golfy Stompy

Your Oath of Office says you’ll put the needs and safety of the American people first. Imposing a travel ban is a simple direct way to do that, as is closing our southern border (which you have consistently FAILED to do.)

We won’t even discuss your failure to take, ISIS or as France has decided to call them Daesh, seriously, or your subsequent authorization of bombing in Iraq and Syria. 

Really President Stompy, Why should I or the rest of the American people trust you?

I’m not hysterical about ebola. I’ll tell you this, I’d think twice about getting onto a plane right now.

I’ve caught the flu more times than I can count on planes. The flu is a pain in the ass, ebola is worse so if I don’t have to fly, I’m not going to.

President Fail

Technically I don’t even have to fly to get ebola. I can simply kiss someone that was on a plane and who now has flu like symptoms, its flu season we’d think nothing of it, and we’d probably wait to get treatment because a lot of us are still having so much trouble with our medical insurance that the concept of seeing a doctor is simply too daunting. The delays in seeking treatment, could result in more exposure, and the spread of the virus before it was even reported in a particular area.

This is because Mr. President, you’ve failed… again, to put the safety and wellbeing of the American public first.

You may well have created an America that rivals third world cesspool countries, time will tell. Regardless, your presidency will be one for the history books. 

Congratulations!

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I’ve been feeling Compressed

PADI 2014 Oct 12

No, not as in diving compressed, (although I could use some underwater time). Any Divers out there wanna get wet? [Thanks to PADI for the nifty photo]

My compression stems from issues in my life.

As I’ve mentioned before, I share internet with the next door neighbor. Generally this isn’t a problem,  they’re using an old Windows based machine that I suspect is rife with malware. This doesn’t really affect me, except that when that machine logs onto the network it sucks up pretty much all the available DSL bandwidth.

For the non techies… The internet gets really slow.

Most of the time, even that doesn’t bother me unless I’m streaming a movie or something. But it reminds me that I’m not alone, and someone else has the ability to affect my life through my own niceness.

Then there’s the ugly assed fence which focuses my vision on their back yard, making me to be completely unable to ignore all the kids stuff, trampoline, monkey bars, various toys scattered about, and the pile ‘o junk stuffed in the corner.

IMG 0309

This fence also makes me feel that I have no privacy because it’s a constant reminder that there are kids there, even when they’re not out screaming, squabbling, or using the trampoline to jump up above the fence to ask me what I’m doing out on my deck. I can’t look past it, god knows I’ve tried. The 7ft tall monstrosity is THERE  protecting the children from… what? The occasional wayward hiker?

Then there’s the ceiling fan in my office. You see, the neighbors apparently put up a new ceiling fan in their house, and they left the unit’s code set to default. (Lots of new ceiling fans have these nifty remotes that allow you to change the speed of the fan and / or control the light in the fan.)

The problem is that when you put one of these fans in, you really should choose a new code other than the default one. Guess how I found out the electrician that built this house hadn’t bothered to change the code?

You guessed it. The great fan war started this summer. There are three neighbors that could possibly be close enough to control my office ceiling fan. One house is under going major remodeling. Since that place is gutted, I scratched them off the list. The other neighbor isn’t likely to have made any real changes, since she’s cold all the time. Which leaves the next door neighbors!

IMG 0362

Dammit! They’re jacking my internet up, have destroyed the view, have left me feeling like I’m having to accommodate their kids, “Asked” that we hose down our back yard every day during a drought while letting our plants die because she was pregnant and her nose was too sensitive, and finally…

Because they don’t want to figure out why their new fan isn’t working quite right, I’m the one that has to get up on a ladder with a screwdriver and a spring hook, (a spring hook looks a lot like a dental tool its sharp and pointy with a slight hook at one end. Great for flipping tiny little switches.) to manhandle 70lbs of ceiling fan to change the code to something they’re not using. 

But then it continues…

Once I’ve got the fan issue fixed, I think, “hey its time for me to rearrange the office” and so I begin that process only to find that my other half has systematically occupied every single open space in both closets, the filing cabinet, and a substantial portion of the basement with… for want of a better term CRAP! 

There’s no way for me to put my stuff out of the way or reorganize my stuff because his stuff is literally everywhere.

SO after grumbling about living with the equivalent of a 13 year old packrat, LOUDLY.  I start whipping through my shit and tossing anything that isn’t nailed down and functional. 

But the whole time I’m thinking, why am I the one that’s adapting to the situation AGAIN. 

I find myself thinking, “Maybe I should just pack whatever shit from this house that I want, and that will fit in my damn car and that will be MY space. Perhaps my life will be easier if I just allow the forces in my life that are conspiring to compress me into a tight little space, win. Then everyone will be happier and I’ll finally have some peace. Maybe I should sell every vehicle I own, buy a pickup truck with a tonneau cover (I don’t like camper shells) and be a true nomad, wandering towns and highways randomly. I’ll stop in interesting places do piece work for cash then move on. Maybe I should become ’That Guy’, the stranger, the scary dude in the corner of your local bar. ”

Then again maybe all this is just another way for the universe to tell me “Its time to move on.”

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Well, that was relatively painless

OSX Yosemite

Ok, Perhaps I am a fan boi.

I downloaded Apples newest OS today and it installed without a hitch… so far as I can tell.

Yosemite is awesome, flat and fast.

I’ve never had an OS update that was faster than it’s predecessor and I’m kinda digging this.

Obviously there is a lot more to investigate but honestly, in this full OS Upgrade thing, Apple is king.

I’m looking forward to the integration between the Computer, the phone, and the iPad. All that stuff should be implemented fully on Monday when the IOS update to 8.1 happens.

In the mean time, I get to explore a new Mac OS. 

Happy Friday!