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{ Category Archives } Rant

lawd amighty, I feel my temperature risin’

Speaking of fresh

Here are the bandages Kaiser Permanente is using on patients today:

Amazon air-quote Fresh

Amazon “Fresh” is just a way for Whole Foods to get rid of things that have either already expired, or will expire tomorrow.

The usual blather from the usual idiots

Not going to link to my favorite clueless-hate-read/podcast-listen, but here’s the typical demonstration of the path to right-wing nut-jobbery no-empathy-until-it-happens-to-me-or-mine:   “Some of the saddest shit I’ve ever seen are injured climbers who try to keep climbing through their injury. Top-roping warm-ups with only three working appendages has always struck me as a pathetic use […]

Backup camera

As far as I can tell, all that the now-mandatory backup cameras do is allow people to zip out of their driveways in reverse at high speed without ever looking up to see if anyone is walking down the sidewalk. So now it’s your fault, as a pedestrian, if you happen to not see or […]

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AI

I’ll believe in artificial intelligence when the map app tells me that yes, it’s only 15 minutes to get over to that place right off the freeway 10 miles east, but by the way, all the entrance ramps are closed going west, so it will take you an hour sitting through multiple traffic light cycles […]

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The germ theory of disease

I’ve started going to the regular gym again, because I’m not getting any younger, and I didn’t buy a big enough house to install a home gym [1] [2]. I’m not surprised, but I am amazed at the number of people who hit the hand sanitizer after every exercise. And yet I’m the only person […]

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Generations

One of the things that strikes me at work is the number of folks in the cohort just older than me [1] who have second homes in the mountains – Big Bear, Yosemite, Arrowhead, etc. Not too many ocean, that was always unaffordable for working joes. In my cohort [2], the unmarried of us own […]

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Cancel culture

I’ve had noise cancelling headphones for years now, mainly for use when flying [1]. I don’t particularly like in-ear buds though, as I have what are called ‘convoluted’ ear canals; in-ear buds tend to be painful after a while. And I also like to be able to hear a car about to run me down […]

Not a problem everywhere

After a week of driving and sleeping in Europe, I noticed that I only heard one super-loud obnoxious car [1] or motorcyle, and I never once was blinded by too-bright headlights, not even coming up over a rise and catching the lower part of their beam. And of course didn’t get bright-lighted even once [2]. […]

Still not a total Apple fanboy

Apple’s idea of human interface design c. 2022: 8 point gray text on a white background, apple-plus doesn’t increase the size, and Music is still a POS app that screws up all my smart playlists by not distinguishing between the rating I give a song, and the unchangeable automatic album rating that gives every song […]

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Loud electric cars

Since EVs became more common, the proportion of loud cars, both from the factory and modified [1], have increased about equally. This leads to the conclusion that as all Harley goes out of business, and all the old loud cars disappear, the boys will have to find a way to make EVs loud. Will they […]

Idiocracy was too optimistic

I have also come to the sad realization that we would be lucky to have President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Camacho. This is a politician who identified the greatest problem affecting his nation, found the most qualified person to solve it, and risked his reputation and position defending and enacting his findings despite opposition from […]

Mute

I had to buy the new $60 AppleTV remote, because Logitech has stopped supporting their Harmony remotes [1], and the volume and mute button no longer work, and HBOMax has adopted the (former) Netflix strategy of being as obnoxious as fuck. Of course I want to hear the tag music from whatever show they’re pushing […]

Crash

After yet another road bike crash, one of my friends keeps telling me that I should take up gravel biking or mountain biking. Yes, there’s less chance of getting hit by a car (except driving over to the place where I’ll be gravel/mountain-biking, I suppose). Or trying to park at one of these places on […]

Perhaps there will be a modem sound when I dial the phone

Why is it that in the year of our Covid March 723, 2020, that I still have to peel off that impossible stupid fucking sticker to open the CD that I paid for and didn’t download off Pirate Bay? The adhesive of which will still be sticky in March 1420, 2020. Why do I still […]