rant and rave

This is where ranting and raving occurs. Venting. Blowing things out of proportion. That kind of thing.

Biden vs Trump

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I thought Trump vs Clinton four years ago was huge.  Now lots of us are watching the Biden vs Trump election State-side.  So far, this is what it is (at 1pm MST).

I don’t usually tell my political view to anyone except in meaningless idle talk.  But, seriously, there are just a few presidents as controversial as Trump – beyond even George W Bush, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, or even Harry S Truman.  Trump is second only to George W Bush for being a horse’s ass, in my humble view.

It’s a right race between the two, Biden & Trump.  The world is in for more rocky roads ahead if Trump gets in again.  I don’t so much like Biden as much as I dislike Trump, but I do share Biden’s green ideas.  Coming from an Albertan in a world of $35 a barrel oil, this likely won’t go over well, but if there is ever a time for change, it is now.

N95 explanation

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In working with wood, I bought N95 masks several years ago.  They were, after all, the best ones one could buy.  So shopping at Rona a week ago, they only had regular dust masks.  I asked why they didn’t have N95 masks on the shelves yet.  It’s been a year since the newest coronavirus had been discovered.  Couldn’t the supply chain have ramped up supply for the demand by now?

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ain’t nothin’ left t’ do ‘cept complain ’bout nothin’

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Oh my goodness.  I read various articles that pop up on by Firefox browser start page.  They catch my eye, and off I go into the never-never land of short reads.  I enjoy most of them, and some of them I just abandon half-way through.  However, there is one that I just have to comment on.

Pocket worthy Stories to fuel your mind.

It’s time to talk about “It’s”

It’s overused. It’s lazy. It’s something that should be stopped.

The Outline – Leah Finnegan

It seems to me that the writer (writer?) of this article has lost his / her mind.  At least with navel-gazers, they’re picking apart imaginary parts of their own selves.  But this writer … <sigh>  Have we nothing more to fix these days without trying to fix imaginary problems?  Has this writer been in quarantine too long?

reprieve in the long hours

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After finishing college and taking a couple stabs at finding my ‘ideal’ workplace, which took a year and a half, I think I found a place I belong, at least for now, at CE.  (Or, rather, T found it for me on Kijiji and emailed it to me.)  I’ve been working since late Nov. 2019, learning as I go.

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an important difference (or, let me in, just don’t follow me)

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I submitted this to the Washington Post.

I recently tried to view one of your pages (https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/suffering-from-bad-knees-some-look-for-alternatives-to-surgery/2019/11/15/d286d862-dfd7-11e9-be96-6adb81821e90_story.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab) but was transferred to another page requesting to disable my web browser’s ad-block (https://www.washingtonpost.com/steps-for-disabling-firefoxs-native-adblocker/2018/05/21/fb95bf4e-5d37-11e8-b2b8-08a538d9dbd6_story.html). I have apps on my browser to disable tracking, not ads. I do not mind ads. I believe that a free internet requires ads. However, I do not wish to be tracked. I am happy to view your ads without being tracked. I do not know how to separate the two. Firefox, Ghostery, DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials, Privacy Badger, and others all seem to do both simultaneously. Can you offer a method of unblocking ads without disabling tracking blocks? I would welcome this.

I wonder if anyone is listening.

to SIN or not to SIN

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Good gravy.  I’ve been contacted four times in the past 24 hours by a machine claiming to be from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.  The recording states that my Social Insurance Number has been compromised.  Good gravy!  How gullible do you think I am?  Here’s an announcement from the actual OPC.  Don’t be fooled, people!  Hang up!

when things go wrong (aka cursed server)

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I drove to Rosedale, BC to take care of Father’s house, as I told everyone.  However, on the second day that I was gone, my server crashed.  <AAAAAH!>  Every time I leave, something happens to the computer!  I phoned Floyd to help out.  I guided him through various steps to get it running again.  No go.  I needed the server to update to everyone how things are going there on lesjohnston.ca and here, to post things for sale, to upload pics to share with various people, etc, but the server just would not work.  I got back into town yesterday evening, about three weeks later, and worked on the server.  It’s now running again.  Piece of crap.  It’s cursed.  It only crashes and refuses to restart when I leave town.

virus and backup

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There are a few entries missing from the Ongoing Letter because the server caught a virus.  Actually, I made a mistake and opened up an FTP service on it without encryption.  I thought, “No one will ever know there’s an FTP site here.”  Stupid.  Within a week, a virus showed up.  I had to reinstate a backup from about two weeks ago.  So, students and others, if your web page is not up-to-date, please let me know.  Those of you who posted something on your own page, “Sorry!”  You’ll have to re-post.  Better to be virus-free than to screw around with patching up an infected server.

Korean age

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Holy cow.  Amazing.  I thought it would never happen.  (Still might not.)
South Korea mulls ending arcane age system to match rest of world

Believe it or not, the phrases “happy birthday” and “how old are you?” are unrelated in South Korean culture.  They’re completely separated concepts.  So, when an English (that is to say, ESL) book links age and birthday together, Korean kids are confused.  

Yet, if I were to buy a car made June 2, 2018, it would be one year old.  On the other hand, a Korean baby born on the same day would be three!  Go figure.

I think a question to drive the point home is, “How long have you been alive?”

But does this mean we all have to start calculating our age from conception?  Now there’s something I don’t want.

If you stick with the Korean age system, don’t blame anyone if they laugh hysterically when you say your newborn is two years old.

I say, pick a standard and go with it.