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There’s A Baby In The Clowder

November 16, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Since we lost Titus a couple of months ago, the house felt a bit empty. We discussed adding another cat to the group. What sex? What kind? The Wife wanted another hairless, but those are few and far between. Plus, in the aftermath of Ian, there was a heightened scrutiny on all listings. Just as tragedies bring out the greatness in humanity, it also brings out the worst.

Finally, we made an appointment at a local shelter. We looked at several, but ended up with a tiny kitty. A tiny Siamese kitty.

There was much discussion on a name. The Wife prefers old-fashioned names. I prefer non-people names. She started with Alice. I countered with Mab. She offered Hazel. I offered Inara. Finally we settled on a name.

I present to you the newest member of the Ward Clowder – Freya.

Photo of Freya, a siamese mix kitten, laying on a polka dot mat

Monday Links

November 14, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Last week, we heard what sounded like a crash in the early morning hours. Couldn’t find any damage. Turns out, it was a sonic boom from the X-37B returning to the Cape after 908 days in orbit. That brings back memories of the windows shaking every time the shuttle landed.

Speaking of the shuttle, there’s a report that some divers looking for WWII wreckage ended up finding a part of the Challenger.

Those of you who listen to the Assorted Calibers Podcast have heard that Erin Pallette of Blazing Sword and the Pink Pistols was discussing her recent email exchange with a high school student on gun control. Erin helpfully put up the exchange on her blog. This would be a good primer for some of the folks who are curious about why we keep and bear arms.

Continuing with the gun theme, we have a Reason article about a judge dismissing a challenge to the law forbidding medical marijuana users from owning or carrying guns. I dislike marijuana. Don’t like the smell and don’t like the traditional pot culture. However, I do not think it should be treated any different from alcohol. Including how we treat the users.

From Skeptical Inquirer comes an article asking if sports is a breeding ground for pseudoscience. Well, yeah.

Finally, we have an article talking about some leaked info about a new DLC for Civ 6. Including bringing back some favored leaders. I will admit to looking forward to this. I have really enjoyed the last couple rounds of DLC.

Friday Quote – Rudyard Kipling

November 11, 2022 / / 0 Comments

You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires, an’ all:
We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country” when the guns begin to shoot;
An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool — you bet that Tommy sees!

Excerpt from Kipling’s poem “tommy”

You Are Testing The Limits Of My Blood Pressure Medications

November 10, 2022 / / 1 Comment

Last week, The Wife’s job flew her up to New York to meet with her co-workers in the offices around there. Since I can do my job from anywhere with internet access, I tagged along. We stayed in Morristown, New Jersey, which is a very pretty town from what we saw. I mostly stayed in the hotel room working while The Wife gallivanted around with her boss to the various offices.

The title from this post comes from a comment made by The Wife when we realized that I had left my phone at the ticket counter when we checked in for our flight north. Fortunately, we were able to get back and retrieve my phone with little issue, but it was about ten to fifteen minutes of high stress.

Then, The Wife “returned the favor” when she accidentally left her work headphones at one of the satellite offices. We both use Jabra headsets for our work, which aren’t cheap, but immensely worth it for when we have multiple and/or long teleconferences and meetings. And I was running a major multiple-day meeting from the hotel room. Fortunately, one of her coworkers found the headphones and mailed them back to us. They were waiting for us when we returned.

We are done with traveling for the foreseeable future. After three weeks on the road, it’s so good to be back in our beds and in our routines.

Derek’s Mildly Useful Reviews – Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

November 9, 2022 / / 0 Comments

On our last movie night, The Wife and I sat down to watch the movie on the Roku channel. We got ads through out the movie, which was annoying.

The movie itself was hilarious. The best way I can describe it is if there sprung up a Weird Al cult a couple of generations from now, and one of the most fervent followers decided to make a “holy video”. It is over the top, bears little resemblance to reality, and I was laughing throughout.

Monday Links

November 7, 2022 / / 0 Comments

First, from the Volokh Conspiracy (yes, it’s hosted on Reason), is an article on how zoning is hurting the housing market for the “missing middle”. This is an area of concern for me because I see what’s happening in my part of Florida. We have subsidized housing for the poor, and the upper middle to upper classes can afford the current prices. What we need is workforce housing – affordable housing for those who are making around the median incomes. I worry that if we don’t find market-based solutions for this issue, then the collectivists will dominate the debate.

Speaking of market-based solutions, Lyft – with support from United Way, Goodwill, and Indeed – is providing free rides for people going to interviews. They will also provide additional free rides if the person gets the position for a few weeks to cover training and getting that first paycheck.

Another Reason article, this one slamming the ATF for losing thousands of gun parts to thieves. I’m less open to completely dismantling the ATF, mostly because then those duties would just go to FBI or Secret Service or some other .gov agency. It – like many federal police agencies – need some serious overhauling and reform.

Here’s an older article from NPR on the Cherokee Nation pushing to have a delegate in Congress. According to the article, there’s a provision in one of the treaties for the Cherokee to send someone to Congress. I do not know enough about the Native American issue to give a full opinion. I know the way the American government has handled the reservations are atrocious. There’s part of me that would like to abolish the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and treat each of the reservations as “states” with their own Senate and House delegates, but I’m not sure if that would alleviate the issues.

From War Is Boring comes an article about the Haitian Police using some new armored vehicles and tactical training to retake the nation’s main oil port from gangs. I didn’t even know that this was an issue that small nation was facing. Unfortunately, it doesn’t surprise me. I feel for the people of Haiti, but I just don’t know what could be done that would make things better for both the short-term and the long-term.

Finally, an article from The National Interest on some alt history ways where Germany might have won World War I. In my amateur historian view, if Germany had won WWI, there would not have been a WWII – at least as it unfolded. However, I think we would have had a Pacific War. And if Germany imposed war reparations on the Allies as they did, I wouldn’t have been surprised if the history books would talk about a new Franco-Prussian War. The what-ifs are intellectually interesting.

The Great Realignment

November 2, 2022 / / 0 Comments

One of the most puzzling issues cropping up in the last year has been the labor market. There’s been a lot of ink (digital and print) on the Great Resignation. How there’s a tight labor market, particularly in the service industries. Then in the last couple of months came the issue of quiet quitting – or the idea of just doing the minimum requirements of the job.

I still don’t fully understand what is happening. I don’t even think the experts fully understand. They probably won’t until the autopsy is done in a generation. What I do think is that all of this is part of a great realignment of the labor market. Workers are reevaluating not just what jobs they want and how they do their work, but what is the new work ethic for the coming decades. Management and owners are going to have to determine how to do work in this new environment. What work needs to be done, how it needs to be done, and if it needs to be a human doing it.

Like so many things, the pandemic and the resultant shutdowns have forced issues to come to ahead much faster and sooner than expected. It jumped started these kinds of conversations well before we had the underlying conversations and decisions. So, now we’re forced to deal with the aftershocks. What concerns me is where we are on the “thesis-antithesis-synthesis” model. I don’t think we’re at synthesis, and I fear we’re at thesis. Which means this new labor world will probably be shaking things up for the better part of a generation.