Category: General

Posted on

Am I getting old and crotchety?

I hate Memorial Day.

That’s not actually true. I hate Memorial Day weekend. All the yard sales draw people into the neighborhood. Even that isn’t a big deal, but the sheer numbers of people are a nuisance.

It’s hard to walk the dog. People aren’t paying attention to the road while they’re driving. They’re looking for signs, and at the goods splayed out in presentations on front lawns, driveways, and inside garages.

Which means they’re driving poorly in the first place, and thankfully slowly for the most part. Where this becomes an issue is if you’re trying to cross a street with a pup that loves everyone and is equally intrigued by all the nifty colorful stuff being displayed.

God help you if someone is selling dog toys!

In short there’s chaos. People parking in the streets, others trying to go about their business and attempting to navigate around various cars and people wandering around like they’re at a mall.

Walking a dog in all of this is a pain. What’s worse is that there are traffic jams and at every street crossing the wait for a break in traffic is a long one.

So it’s with blazing sun and an impatient pup that you wait, and wait, and wait before it’s safe to cross.

That’s annoying. 

Add to that a neighbor across the street screaming and cursing about dogs in the neighborhood doing their jobs; barking at strangers and thinking they’re protecting their owner’s homes or possessions which from their perspective are inexplicably on the front lawn. My stress level starts climbing and I realize I don’t want another summer of this guy adding to the noise.

Several months ago, the crazy lady was apparently hauled off to the booby hatch. Approximately a month prior to that, all of the 20+ Chihuahuas she was keeping were sent to good homes, or the pound. The limit is 4 dogs per household how the hell she had 20+ dogs is beyond me. Well, not entirely. She refused to have any of them fixed. So reproduction being what it is…

It does explain why the dogs exhibited pack behavior and why they were so damn loud all the time.

For a blissful few months, there was no cacophony of noise coming from her place. A new neighbor moved in with 2 huskies who “sing” the world into existence about 7:30am. Sometimes Jesse joins in the chorus for one or two howls, then he’s bored and comes in to check on me.

Lately, he just ignores their morning serenade.

For the last two weeks a next door neighbor has been host to a lady friend and what I presume to be her daughter. That’s his business and I certainly don’t care. Except that the daughter isn’t all there.

Oddly she exhibits the same behavior that “Crazy Pants” across the street did. Equally strange is that her voice is almost exactly a match for “Crazy Pants”.

The voice alone is triggering, but now that voice and nonsensical sounds, singing, yelling, screaming, chittering like a monkey, and all the rest, sounds like she’s in my damn living room.

Even Jesse has taken to laying in the front bedroom just to be as far away from the source of the sound as possible.

Why do these people have only one volume? Loud! This defective human must be seen, and acknowledged otherwise she raises her voice to impossible levels until she is acknowledged. It’s tiresome, and while you’d think, “just be nice,” that’s never enough.

She must be spoken to, and you know what? Sometimes I don’t feel like having an inane conversation first thing in the morning. I sure as hell don’t want to have the same conversation each and every time I set foot on the back deck.

I’m becoming that old guy that is grumpy all the damn time. I’m fighting it, but it’s a losing battle.

For the past week I’ve been working on coursework to obtain a certification in a bid to make me more marketable to potential employers. It’s not been that difficult but it does require concentration.

Especially since midway through the course the bit of software I was learning was so dissimilar from the course materials being presented, that each lab required 20 minutes of hunting and pecking to find the control element the course material said I should see on a particular page. The software in question has changed radically since the course work was developed.

As you might imagine this added a level of frustration. To make matters worse, the differences multiplied three fold by the time I got to the end of the course.

The end was in sight, and the certificate was just out of reach.The first three modules, I scored between 93 and 100 on the module exam. By the fourth and final exam, I scored an 88. DAMN!!!!!

Starting to see the problem? My general frustration level was increasing on a number of fronts at the same time. 

There are a couple more certifications I want to get including one from an international organization for testing professionals. That’s a $250 course and I think I’m going to need absolute concentration to learn the material and pass that final.

Thankfully, I didn’t start that one at the same time because the random screams and badly imitated birdcalls apparently coming from my living room would certainly have annoyed me to the point of becoming a real asshole!

Yesterday evening, I literally couldn’t watch a movie without having the volume at “Sonic Boom” levels. Since the movie had gunfire and explosions the situation was untenable, even with the doors and windows closed. So I gave up and spent more time “exploring” the piece of software that has been giving me difficulty, outside the coursework assignments.

To add another cramp in my style: I like working on the deck in the early morning. It’s quite nice to enjoy the morning cool, with a cup of coffee, my computer, the birds singing in the trees, and my dog watching the world while curled up at my feet. He likes the morning “watch” and really likes our time together in the morning sun.

Right up until “HELLO SIR! HELLO SIR! UH HELLO SIR!!!!” The last, at a level that rivals a Saturn rocket taking off.

I feel like MurderBot. My internal dialogue is something like, “Maybe if I don’t answer she’ll go away. Uhhh nope, she really feels if she talks others are obligated to respond. Can’t she see that I’m working? Why can’t she leave me alone? What would she do if I was mute? I need to go check the perimeter. I wonder if she would leave me alone if I was wearing a set of obvious headphones? Maybe a bright shiny set of AirPod Max headphones…“

At least I’m a sir. It’s at this point we exchange pseudo pleasantries and I move inside to continue working undisturbed. Jesse follows me in then lays down with a heavy sigh.

I guess my annoyance stems from the fact that I don’t like someone forcing me into a position where their sense of importance is predicated on my responding to them whether I give a shit about them or not.

Perhaps this is why I loathe the TQIA2S+ abc∏ part of the LGB community. I don’t care if they exist or not. I shouldn’t be forced to validate them.

I completed the course. I got the certificate and it is now listed on my resume and the linked in account for what that’s worth.

All of this leads to a question about the viability of remote work here at the house. I can’t be in a conference call with obscenities and fake whippoorwill bird calls punctuated with screaming.

Remote work will likely involve a lot of conference calls and video chat time. How can I explain it’s nothing, when those sounds will appear to be coming from inside my house?

Which leads me back to the whole issue of being subjugated in my own space by the vagaries of others who have no self control, common sense, or respect for their fellow humans.

That leads me back to being grumpy.

Hopefully, the neighbors lady friend and her defective offspring will be leaving soon. I rather suspect that the next door neighbor is finding this tiresome too.

He’s a voice actor who works from his home. He has a nice studio setup inside the house, but even his soundproofing probably can’t cut out all the noise from his back yard. If he starts missing deadlines due to retakes, he may decide the price is too high.

Am I a bad person for wanting peace and quiet? Has my neighborhood become like the apartment complex I lived in down in Escondido? I don’t have gunshots ringing out 2 blocks over on weekends when rival gangs went to war with each other… yet. But certainly things appear to be going south here in my little mountain community.

If I’m going to have to put up with incessant noise, what’s the point of living here? An apartment in Wyoming, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, or three blocks from my mother and stepfather in Florida would do just as well. A perk is that I could call the landlord when something broke.

I find myself wondering if I’m crazy, just grumpy, suffering from over sensitivity, or are these things that annoy the shit out of me actually valid.

It’s time for bed. I’m exhausted. Once agin, the dog is right.

Tomorrow, I’ll send out the new resume and wait to see if this improves my responses.

While I’m waiting for the rest of the Memorial Day weekend to come to a close, I’ll clean and toss more stuff. 

Remember Memorial Day isn’t about sales, or garage sales. It’s about remembering and appreciating all those who didn’t come home and who believed that fighting for our ability to have a BBQ and shop in peace and freedom was worth their lives.

I guess compared to their sacrifice, my bitching is insignificant.

Hug a soldier and have a nice few days.

Posted on

This probably doesn’t bode well for The View

There’s a report in The Daily Beast saying the hosts of The View have been asked to tone it down. Specifically, their political rhetoric and bashing of Donald Trump.

Disney CEO Bob Iger and ABC News President Almin Karamehmedovic had a meeting with the harridans of The View and suggested that viewers might want a little less politics and perhaps more diverse discussions and guests.

Apparently, the hosts of The View weren’t happy about it.

Anna Navarro seemed to believe that the viewers tuned in to hear political discourse instead of a Women’s chat show.

It’s reported, the hosts of The View called the request “Silly”.

The View has been at the top of the ratings (surprisingly,) through the first part of 2025.

My Mother was a regular viewer until the hosts veered into politics full time. Prior to tuning them out completely, she’d switch channels the moment the hosts started shrieking and talking over each other, (her words, not mine).

My mother was a big fan of Barbara Walters. She stayed with The View for years after Walters left the show.

I think the ladies at The View are missing the handwriting on the wall. Their constant ranting may be becoming a liability. Prior to the 2024 election, the hosts of The View had to issue multiple retractions on-air over some of their comments. The trouble with retractions like that, is they’re meaningless. No matter what’s being retracted, it’s been said and there are a ton of folks who only hear the statement, not the retraction. (Hmm. That’s kind of like distributing misinformation. Isn’t the Left adamantly opposed to even allowing misinformation?)

It’s likely the show is keeping a cadre of lawyers busy, which no doubt increases production costs.

Other reports alluded to some FCC involvement as well. How true that is, I’m not sure.

Media, has paid a dear price for misrepresenting Trump’s comments. CBS is being sued for election interference due to their editing of the Kamala Harris interview.

ABC has also felt the heat.

Now with the wheels coming off the cover-up of Biden’s mental and physical state during his presidency, and Jake Tapper’s book. I wonder if Disney and ABC are looking at ways to limit their liability.

Cancellation of The View might be in the offing if the hosts choose not to tone it down.

Honestly, that might be a good thing. 

“The view spew”, seems to be reflected directly in the anti-Trump protests. The question is whether The View is accurately reporting the protestors opinions, or creating them.

Yes, when Trump screws up it should be reported. That is true of any President. However incredibly biased reporting shouldn’t be tolerated.

We know for a fact, based on recent revelations, that media was running cover for President Biden, for at least a part of his presidency.

It’s reasonable to assume that as polarized as things are, that same media will take any opportunity to bash and attempt to destroy anyone that they disagree with. A.K.A. Donald Trump, Conservatives, Republicans, etc.

A fundamental question that should be asked, and answered; what is The View? Is the show a news show with journalistic integrity, or is it a chat show for entertainment? The two have very different expectations and rules.

Honestly, I wouldn’t mind seeing The View cancelled. I’m no more interested in what those screeching harridans have to say, than the man in the moon. Yet, even though I don’t watch the show, I’m assaulted by their inane opinions anytime I read the news.

Men typically, and executives specifically, don’t look kindly upon people who don’t get the hint. If their “silly” request isn’t taken seriously, and it appears it was not, then I suspect cancellation or not renewing contracts is in the works. Does Joy Reid ring any bells?

Perhaps I could be interested in tuning in to their last show. The wailing and gnashing of teeth should be epic.

Posted on

Okay, I’m liking the new resume revision.

I’ll give this another whirl. 

The suggestions the Grok AI made do improve the way the resume reads. In fact, it’s much better than that “Hack” I paid to rework my resume.

These changes are clear and make sense. It’s not just a bunch of BS keywords strung together. I’ve begun work on several of the suggested certifications. Oddly, the courses themselves come easily. Perhaps because they’re kind of intuitive and align with the way I’ve always done these sort of things. I can see the years of experience that I have, playing into grasping the materials presented for the certifications themselves.

The latest version of TestRail is 1000 times better than the version I worked with years ago. Jira, likewise makes a lot more sense than it used to. I’m amused in a way because these certifications are just a way for someone to make money.

I always fought against paying for someone to certify that I knew stuff. I remember being able to outright buy a Microsoft or Netware certification.

Back in the day, everyone did it, then put the little logo on their resumes. In the end the certifications were so devalued lots of employers stopped caring, and the fad died off. 

These days some of these certifications have become a necessary evil. As long as the cost for training and certification doesn’t get out of hand, having these listed on my resume and actually brushing up on my knowledge isn’t a bad thing.

It’s also possible that going through the course work will help to reintegrate me into the current terms and methodologies. That might make me more hire-able and more easily blend into extant corporate cultures.

I don’t know if that’s true but it’s relatively cheap to find out.

Ideally, what I want is a simple testing job, I don’t need a ton of money coming in. I’d be really happy if I could work remotely 100% of the time. I don’t want to have to sit on the freeway, and should I move, it wouldn’t necessarily mean changing jobs.

As I was working on the resume, it occurred to me that I might need to get a fast external drive for my computer.

I did a quick investigation of some of the testing tools and software. I’d need to build a dedicated test rig, these tools put crap deep into the OS, and some of the changes may not be easy to reverse.

It would be nice to have a bootable external device to keep work stuff on, that never touched my core personal system.

Fortunately, those kinds of devices are pretty cheap and my computer is dang fast. But that’s a purchase that wouldn’t come until I had job in hand, and perhaps the company would provide a machine on their dime. If they don’t, I could have a device delivered in a day.

I’m oddly optimistic. I haven’t liked my resume for the past several years. But I was stuck and couldn’t see how to improve it.

It’s interesting that a dispassionate AI could give me clarity.

Posted on

Apple has a new Pride Watchband. Ughh!

It’s well renown that Apple has always been a company that embraced the LGB community. There’s a reason, that back in the day, going into a gay bar was almost like going into an iPhone store display.

Over the years, I’ve looked with amusement and occasional interest at the Apple “Pride” Wallpapers. When the Apple Watch became available, I took interest in  their watch faces and matching bands. I think I may own one of their so called “Pride” bands.

That being said, there were very few of these bands that I liked.

If the photos do it justice, this year’s offering is abysmal. It really looks like someone just “Phoned it in.” There’s no grace, charm, or elegance.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Apple claims it was based on whatever vomitious iteration of the so called “Pride Flag” is in vogue now. 

Gay flag 2662347892.I’ve come to see the current banner of the LGBTQIA+xyz not as a “Pride Flag” but as a “Shame” flag.

A flag with which, I want no association, and feel no kinship. Today’s flag represents the commandeering of an entire community and the bastardization of what was once something that brightened the fronts of establishments.

The old flag was a simple rainbow, bright happy colors that made folks smile because they echoed the beauty of an actual rainbow. Some religious fundamentalists (primarily those who hated gay people for existing at all,) were offended, but generally, folks could look at a rainbow flag and smile despite their personal beliefs.

The flag of today appears as conflicted as the LGBTQIA+xyz community it represents. There is one mathematical view that the new flag accurately represents the TQIA+xyz agenda. If you look at the black stripe as the mathematical symbol “Greater Than” what you see is

TQIA+xyz > LGB

With each additional group that is added on the left side of the black stripe, more of the original rainbow representing the LGB part of the community is occluded.

3edef965 b1a6 4ecd 8407 99ca1ae8cf52 shutterstock 1106302064 15481563.Fully 1/3 of the rainbow is now occupied by the TQIA+xyz representation. If this progression continues, the rainbow itself will be gone entirely in another few years.

I can’t help but see this when I look as today’s so-called “Pride” flag. I see it as a warning, a “We’re coming for you,” message.

Even the color palette is discordant. Pastels overlaid on primary colors simply don’t look right.

In that, perhaps the new “Pride” flag is honest in its representation of the TQIA+xyz agenda, and what is being done to the community at large. What’s left of the old community, that is.

The other problem with the new flag is how nationalistic it appears. It reminds me of flags which in the past have symbolized oppression. There’s perhaps some truth to that as well, given the manner in which more conservative LGB folks are treated by the vocal “Inclusive” TQIA+xyz elements these days.

MFFP4ref AV1.I’d have hated to be the poor schmuck that was called upon to design Apple’s new watchband and wallpapers. 

Going into it they had to know that if they applied real artistic values, the design would be rejected. Had they used the flag’s color palette to make something interesting and beautiful, they’d probably have been accused of not “Properly” representing all the groups equally.

So I suppose they had no choice but to “Phone it in”. Their design constraints probably demanded equal volume of colors and thereby equal representation.

What they came up with, just looks too “busy” and very distracting.

I am grateful to Apple for trying. I’m also grateful for the reminder that June “Pride” will soon be upon us. For me this means that If I want to have dinner & drinks with any LGB friends in Palm Springs, I’d better do it soon. Otherwise we’ll be into July with the blistering heat pounding down on us. As more moderate, bordering on conservative gay men, we’re tolerated. But during Pride Month in Palm Springs it’s simply not a pleasant place to be.

Posted on

First yard work of the season.

Yes, it’s spring, and has been for a while, but up here, one day it’s freezing, the next you’re in shorts.

I typically leave the plants alone, even those we think of as weeds during this time of the year. My run of thumb is, “If it blooms, I’ll leave it so the bees have something to eat.”

The down side is that next season, there might be more weeds. The up side is that I’ve found a lot more native plants in this area have some of the nicest little blooms. Many are short lived, but they’re really neat. The bees like them, and that makes me smile.

It’s no skin off my nose to leave things be, until after the blooms are done. This year because of the wild variations in temp the normal Spring progression has been very weird.

For example, the mountain lilac is in full bloom and fragrant but there are definitely not the normal number of bees. Normally there would be a constant hum within the lilacs but not this year. I think the cold snaps may have harmed some of the local bee colonies. 

Then there’s the other possibility. Someone in the neighborhood poisoned the hell out of their yard which killed off the colonies. I hope the latter isn’t true but it’s an unfortunate likelihood.

Nonetheless, I’ll continue to provide a safe place where there are no pesticides.

That being said, yesterday, I was outside with the weed whacker and cut down the taller native plants whose flowering cycle was done. Most of the work was in the back yard. There are some plants that get tall and provide cover for snakes.

That is a problem because the dog has the run of the back yard and the last thing I need, is him scaring or harassing a rattlesnake. The dog is fast and agile, but I don’t know if he’d be able to avoid the strike much less understand the danger. Sometimes, he’s not the brightest bulb in the pack.

Case in point, here’s a picture of a poor snake we encountered on our walk a couple of days ago. This snake is in “Stick Mode”, because Jesse came round a corner on the trail and completely missed that it was there. Jesse never broke stride and walked right over the poor thing. Exposed like it was, the snake decided to be a “stick”.  This guy was maybe 2 feet long and isn’t poisonous but could just as easily been a rattler.

Today, my arms are rubber, and my shoulders, chest and back are a bit sore.

I could use a massage!

I have a love / hate relationship with the yard work, I mostly enjoy doing it but as I’m getting older, it takes more out of me and longer to fully recover.

I did the yard stuff after our usual walk. So I got my steps in, and was outside for a few hours. It wasn’t until after I came in that I remembered I’d been outside without my hat. On the plus side I remembered to put my gloves and eye protection on before I started working in the yard.

Often the first few times I work outside in the Spring, I’ll forget gloves or eye protection and only remember after something has been kicked up in my face, or I look down and notice I’m dripping blood from a cut on my hand or something. 

This time, I just ended up with a bunch of plant debris in my hair and down my shirt.

When I was done in the front yard. I was just about to go inside and let the breeze carry the clippings away. (There wasn’t much to speak of.) Then I remembered the neighbor across the street who loses his mind if anyone uses a leaf blower in their yard.

I still had 25% charge in the battery. So, for the sake of being a bastard, I pulled the battery from the weed whacker & put it in the leaf blower. That gave me 30 satisfying minutes of driveway and step cleaning, with the neighbor screaming about this not being a parking lot and how it disturbs his sleep, and the usual staccato of obscenities.

I was vaguely aware of his complaints, but I couldn’t quite hear him over the music I was listening to via my AirPods. 

The two huskies across the street had been quiet throughout my working in the yard. They watched quietly and didn’t make a peep even while I began running the leaf blower. When the idiot started shouting and complaining from behind his screen door. They trotted over to their fence facing him, and began to howl as only two huskies can do.

When the battery on the blower died, I went inside for a nice glass of tea.

The huskies continued howling in his general direction for another 5 minutes or so. I must remember to take them some treats!

Have a lovely Sunday.