Probably the most devastating fires in terms of property losses is raging through the Los Angeles area. I’m not going to discuss what caused the fire, the impact of local politics on the response, or other discourses the chattering class is currently indulging in. First, it’s too damn early to start drawing conclusions. Second, I don’t trust those who are making confident assertions this early. Kind of like the 72 hour rule around mass shootings. The people talking first are usually the least informed.
The size and speed of the fires are terrifying. I can only sympathize with the families of the dead and those who have lost their homes and possessions. I have no such sympathy for those who are taking advantage of the chaos to loot and rob. I can only hope karma and justice finds such despicable people.
It is a stark reminder that even if the government wants to help you, it may not be able. You are responsible for your own safety. You are responsible for your own preparations.
Did you make your home ready for likely natural disasters? Did you clear hazards?
Do you have an evacuation plan? For you? For your family? For your pets? Do you know where to go?
Do you have enough supplies to last your household if it’s cut off?
Do you have protection from looters?
These kinds of events are opportune times to have those hard discussions with your loved ones.
New year, and time for links. I took a break and a bunch of stories happened. I’m not going to recriminate myself. I needed it. Anywhoo, this is also a bit of a tab clearing edition, so hold on.
Reason first.
New European rules have pretty much enshrined USB-C. I like USB-C. I think it’s a great technology. I hate it being forced down everyone’s throats at the point of Europe’s guns. I also hate that this will make it harder for new charging technology to be brought forward.
Coverage of Meta’s decision to eliminate “fact-checkers” among other changes. There’s been talk that Zuck is not only trying to ingratiate himself with the incoming administration, but finally feels the environment is strong enough for him to push back against the “hostage-takers” among his staff. Both of which are kind of pathetic reasons when you think about it. It still gets me a result I want, considering FB is normally how I distribute the blog.
Ohio is going to charge people to get access to body cam videos. I’m actually going against Reason on this one. Since fees are capped at $750, it may be reasonable. However, considering governments generally are horrible at timely providing information, I can sympathize with organizations worried it’s just another speed bump in transparency.
NYT covers the new congesting pricing implemented for entering Manhattan. Congestion pricing is one of those ideas I like in concept, but don’t trust the government to implement. For example, all the fees from this new tax are supposed to go to a public transit system already overfunded and incompetent with no demand for improvement in the system.
The Verge discusses BMW’s new iDrive. The idea of a Heads-Up Display for the car intrigued me, and the limited one on the BMW that The Wife and I rented last summer was nifty.
I finally finished the first draft of my fantasy novel and got some feedback from my primary alpha reader. Based on his feedback, I’m doing a substantial rework of the draft. I’m still not sure if I’m going to just put it up on Monday Fiction or if I will go down the self-publishing road. I want to get this done one way or the other.
I also managed to finish up the third installment of my Irregulars series.
My alpha brought to my attention that I do better work when I’m writing from a first-person perspective. I think it’s because I generally think of my stories surrounding one character. It’s easy for me to get into that one character’s headspace. It was what made writing third-person for my fantasy novel so challenging. Expect my next few “new” writing projects to be in first-person for the time being.
Other writing projects I’m working on this year:
Irregulars 4 – The general outline is finished and a good deal of the original script was done because I thought this was going to be Irregulars 3.
Purgatory 1 – From my current sketch/outline this is going to be a fantasy series heavily influenced by the LitRPG principle of nobody to somebody as well as some light isekai influences.
Avalon – I pulled the Avalon stories page down. If I get substantial work done on my other three projects, I’m going to do a massive rework of that series – including a dual first-person storytelling.
I have other ideas written down and “in the bank” as it were. But I’ve learned that I need to focus my efforts. I also need to have a “new” project to keep my creativity going. Even if it’s just sketching it out.
Truth can be stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense.
New Years saw one asshole murder a bunch of people and another one try. I can’t imagine the pain and grief of the survivors and the families of all the victims. I can only offer my heartfelt sympathies.
I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but damn the conspiracies shot off around the interwebz. The timing of the attacks and the identities of the assholes were fertile grounds. Not to mention that for the last five years, too many in leadership of our institutions have not only been caught lying to the public, but actively using the power of their position to not only discredit, but destroy their opponents’ lives.
I’m highly skeptical that either asshole planned their attack with the other asshole. Their motives are too different. The style of attack is too different. Plus the evidence of them knowing each other seems to be they were on the same military base at the same time. Sorry, but unless they were in the same unit at the same time, that’s kind of like saying they were in the same mall at the same time.
I’m highly skeptical that Las Vegas asshole was framed. Yes, bits of evidence can escape damage in a fiery explosion. Look at the bits that escaped the airplanes that crashed into the towers on 9/11. As to the fact that a Green Beret had a Desert Eagle in .50? Let me relate a small bit of my life. I have a good friend who spent time among the Green Beanies. He knows the weapons he was issued up, down, back, and forth. Anything outside those? He asks me because I know more. The idea that even a Green Beret would be seduced by image of a .50 cal Deagle is completely believable to me.
I know a single blog post is not going to convince those who don’t want to be convinced. And I won’t be able to address all the myriad streams of conspiracy that arise from these events.
All I ask is that you use the same skeptical eye that you would against those you don’t trust.
The Wife and I traveled out to Idaho last weekend for my uncle’s memorial service. Christmas– got a bunch of Pocky, a metal tumbler emblazoned with the Mountain Dew logo, and a flashlight that extended out. The Wife told me that she didn’t know how many lumems, but thought I would find it neat.
Dinner was crammed with folks. The Wife’s nephew gave us some smart lighting and gift cards. He also surprised his father with an 85 inch television. It was nice to watch the reveal. Then it was clean up and pack up.
Thursday – Woke up at 0300, did chores, packed up the remaining items, and headed out to the airport. Needless to say, seeing the main security line, even at 0500, made paying for TSA Precheck worth it. I got flagged for routine check, which meant unpacking my carefully packed backpack to get to the wife’s laptop.
First leg wasn’t too bad. Mostly spent the flight watching most of John Wick 4. Wife was extremely happy when we descended into Minneapolis because there was snow on the ground. Once we deplaned, there was one hell of a hike to get to our connection’s gate. Our connection was late departing, but it gave me time to re-watch some Gate. I decided I wanted to binge the series again while we were out. While waiting for our plane, my cousin texted me to ask if I would help his wife with a PowerPoint issue. I told him I would help her when we were in Idaho, but I wasn’t going to do tech support from an airport lounge.
As we landed in Boise, I was excited to see a line of A-10’s as we landed at Boise. The wife was very confused at what they were and why military aircraft were at a civilian airport. It was a bit of a hike to get the bags, but we were quickly fetched by Mom. Which was good, because it was cold out. I found out when we got to Mom’s place that my aunt makes homemade salami. Which is very tasty.
Friday – I woke up feeling like I had a cold coming on. Because the desert is dry and my sinuses now mimic the desert. The Wife was excited to see the snow on the ground. I agreed to do a quick excursion outside so she could experience the snow coming down and get pictures. I forget how wet you get from when the snow melts.
Just as I was settling in to watch my iPad and continue my re-watch of Gate, I was informed we are going to do errands in preparation for the service. And I get to drive in ice and snow and rain! I’m not complaining about the necessity, but I don’t do well with sudden changes. Plus, we were supposed to be helping my cousin in a couple of hours. Frustration compounded when the first store didn’t have what we needed, the second one was closed, but at least the third had everything. I was already at my frustration level, so I was glad to go back to the house.
My cousin and his wife came over, but I found out my PowerPoint services were not required as the funeral home created the presentation. And did a much better job that I would have done with PowerPoint. So we just visited for a while. This was the first time my cousin and me got to meet our respective spouses.
After dinner I got to drive in ice and rain in the dark so we could go up and help set up for the service. For my sins, I got detailed with making the presentation work.
The mp4 file would not work on the media players. Thanks to one of the cousins, we found out it would work on the television, but they wanted me to convert it to a file that would play on the laptop so they can use the projector. Yeah, I don’t have my laptop with me because my new one is barely portable, and I wasn’t taking that huge thing when my iPad does most of what I would want my laptop for. Anyways, I was handed another cousins laptop and voluntold to figure it out. Consulting with brother and Copilot gave me a plan of action, but it was late and I was tired. I would put try my plan in the morning.
Saturday – The plan was simple. The media players we were using wasn’t able to read the file. So get one that would. So, I downloaded VLC and it worked.
We get to the service location and it’s a lot of work getting setup. I also find out that the funeral home is going to come and handle the video. Okay. Fine, I’m the backup. Hey, since you’re free, could you see if you can get this camcorder to work with this memory card? Answer (after about 15 mins)? No. But I will record on my phone and enlist the help of The Brother to get it in a usable form. I knew my shoulders were not going to like that, but I was willing to make that sacrifice for family.
The service was very nice. It was very much on-point for the man being honored. Since I was the “cousin from Florida”, I knew very few of the attendees outside of “core family.” I just did my best to stay out of the way of the organizers with the exception of doing whatever labor was needed. Due to inclement weather and other events, we had about three-quarters of the attendance originally projected. Fecal matter occurs, and Uncle Calvin would understand that better than anyone. The result was that there was a bunch of food that needed to find homes. I imagined we will be eating leftovers for the rest of our stay.
We were exhausted by the time we collapsed into bed. Which didn’t help when MIL called to inform us there were electrical issues at the house. One of the breakers flipped and would not reset. We ended up using FaceTime so we could see the issue. So far as we can determine it was one circuit that controls the kitchen lights. One of the benefits of the smart house was being able to check most of the upstairs by using the Echoes. The wife texted our electrician in hopes he would see it in the morning and get us on the books. Much to our surprise, he texted us right back. At around 11 pm local. He said will come out Monday to take a look. It seems like after we make a huge purchase, something expensive breaks.
Sunday – Breakfast was fried apple waffles with a side of mom and my aunt sharing recipes with the wife. Afterwards, I was told that we were going to a thrift/antique shop in Shoshone we’ve been to previously. Somehow, those plans morphed into a longer excursion up towards Sun Valley so the wife could see more snow. I was miffed with plans being changed on the fly, but shouldn’t have been surprised at this juncture. At the shop, we came across a set of uranium glasses. Mom agreed to transport them down when she comes back to Florida. Then up to see snow. The Wife was impressed and happy. I took comfort in that. Dinner was at a steak place, and I had some decent pork chops.
Back at Ward Manor, MIL managed to get the breaker flipped, but we were still going to have the electrician check it out.
Monday – The plan is a day of rest and get a few things done in preparation for travel back. Back at Ward Manor, the electrician came by to check on the issue with the circuit breaker. The good news is that the issue wasn’t going to cause a fire. However, since it was an intermittent issue, and everything was working when they were there, they can’t narrow it down. It’s most likely one of the recessed LEDs, but we will have to wait until the culprit burns out or causes enough of a fault that the electrician can find it. This is the sort of thing why I don’t deal with electrical.
Relaxation was further disrupted when the wife received a notice of cancellation on the rental’s insurance. Note, this is the insurance we just procured because the previous insurance company dropped us after the hurricanes. After discussions with the agent, it seems they want the things fixed they asked us to fix and then we can resubmit to revoke the cancellation. We already sent them the contract we have to get those things fixed, but now we’re scrambling to work with the construction company to get an appointment. Just an added level of stress. My wife, being the wonderful person that she is, took point on getting it straightened out. Sort of. Hopefully. The Wife asked the universe what else, and it answered. I had to go fetch mom because she wasn’t feeling well, and as I was getting ready, shoelace broke. Feck. At least that was all the universe decided to throw our way that day.
Tuesday – Packing for the trip home is always a bit stressful. We always come home with more than we left with, things don’t pack down like they did for the trip out, etc. Plus there’s always the nagging worry we forgot something. That last bit was a little lessened due to Mom coming back down in a few weeks.
Then we had to do some tech support for Mom. It’s a good thing the wife is more tenacious than I am. I was ready to give up (because it was cold outside), but she persisted and was able to get Mom’s issue settled.
The trip to the airport was pleasant. Gave time to chitchat with Mom. Getting through Boise airport check in and security was a breeze. Once again, TSA precheck was worth every cent.
Getting out of Boise was delayed due to the crew being late. Eh, it wasn’t that bad. I think departure was delayed maybe five minutes. It’s still neat to see the Idaho ANG’s A-10’s lined up off the runway.
The meal on the first leg home was a “chicken Cuban”. Let’s just say they used that term very loosely. It didn’t help it was barely defrosted. Apparently, the catering service in Boise wasn’t up to par.
Atlanta wasn’t too bad. Except for the two and a half hour layover. Oh well, it gave us time for the wife to go to a makeup store she really likes. Plus, the pilot managed to get us off the ground early. Which meant we were on the ground in Tampa a few minutes before the new year. It was interesting seeing the fireworks across Tampa as we landed.
There was some issue with the tram from the airside, but by the time we got to baggage claim, one of our bags was already waiting for us.
The drive home wasn’t as bad as feared. We pulled into Ward Manor around 0130.
