Dubious Quality
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Mulch Wars 2024
I have a contentious history with mulch. See here: The Ides of Mulch.
Mulch has a math formula:
mulch you need=mulch you buy * 1.75
This was the formula in 2023. It was also the formula today.
It doesn't matter how much you buy. You could have a dump truck pull up and dump as many truckloads as you want, and you'd still need *1.75. The trick is that "mulch you need" is not determined until you define "mulch you buy."
Sure, smarty pants. I know what you're thinking. What if I just buy one bag? Nice try. You can't cheat the system. It's just math.
I bought 125 pounds, then had to go back and buy 100 pounds more. I spread it all. Theoretically, I never have to spread mulch again. My back is in favor of this plan.
For dinner I had chocolate cake and Celebrex.
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Udio
I fiddled around with Udio last week because of this Ars Technica article: New AI music generator Udio synthesizes realistic music on demand.Monday, April 15, 2024
Photography Day
The photographer came today to take pictures of the house for the listing.Thursday, April 11, 2024
Friday Links!
The pictures are fascinating: Probably the world's worst amusement park - Beijing's Disney/Universal combo ripoff.O.J. Simpson (no longer breathing)
I was six the first time I saw O.J. Simpson.Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Almost 80 Days (part two)
Well, he made it.
Eli 22.8 called from Oxford, and he sounded as relieved as I've ever heard him coming back from a trip. Not from the trip itself, which was great, but the traveling home part. I got some more details.
Sunday: in Mongu, the hotel has no electricity when he arrives. In itself, this is not surprisingly, because off-loading happens all the time, and the power comes back on a few hours later. In this case, though, it didn't come back on until 5 a.m., and he was leaving in two hours. One night of burning hot sleep (no fans).
Monday: I was wrong about the overturned vehicle being a truck. It was a bus, and it overturned while swerving to avoid an elephant in the road. The eight hour bus trip to Lusaka took fourteen hours. He arrives at the hotel. No power. The power never comes back on. Two nights of burning hot sleep.
Tuesday: He goes to a movie in the morning (power is back on), and then heads for the airport, where he's told he's flying stand-by from Nairobi to Paris. He talked to every person in the Kenya Airways office, and finally they called Nairobi and put everyone on speaker. The issue gets discussed for over an hour, at which point an office employee prints out a boarding pass and hands it to him.
Wednesday: He needs to take a train from Paris to Lille (something about getting to the Chunnel), and it's announced that the train will be two hours late, which means he'll miss the train to London entirely. Fifteen minutes later, a train pulls up and they suddenly announce it's leaving. He literally jumps on board as the train is leaving and the door are closing.
Eli's never bothered by anything that happens while he's traveling--always even-keeled, never really annoyed. When I was in Mexico with C, I called to tell him of our multiple disasters and he said, "Dad, congratulations. You're really traveling now!" with his customary good cheer.
Everyone, though, has an exception.
He did say everything except the return trip was fantastic, and sounded very happy that he went.
Tuesday, April 09, 2024
Almost 80 Days
World traveler 22.8 is having an interesting experience returning from Zambia.Monday, April 08, 2024
Eclipse
I admit it: I've got eclipse fatigue. It hasn't even started yet.Thursday, April 04, 2024
Friday Links!
Leading off this week, a remarkable story: Friendly family man’s deathbed confession reveals his role in massive 1969 bank robbery.A Sad Moment
My neighbors who live in the Wizard's Tower next door had a guest on Easter.
It was a family about their age, with a boy in the 3-4 range. I was coming in from the car and heard a loud voice coming from their driveway. I looked over and saw the visiting guy yelling at his child in the car. Angry, ugly yelling. I don't know what the boy had done. I'm not sure it really mattered.
It was such a sad moment. The Dad was a hyper-aggressive prick (boy, do we have enough of those already or what?), and I doubt the boy understand anything beyond that his Dad was humiliating him.
The father was in his early 30s, and I wanted to say something, but I didn't. I wanted to tell him that children are mirrors, and they reflect back what they see around them. And that humiliation doesn't make them listen, it just makes them want to humiliate someone else.
I saw a situation like that when we were in Austin. One of Eli 22.8s friends had a Dad who was ultra. He was on him in the sharpest, most cutting way. He wanted to make his son tough. It didn't make him tough, though. It just made him an angry kid. It broadened his anger so that it was his first response to everything. That almost never ends well.
Eli's the hardest kid I've ever known, and I never yelled at him. Not once. He's gentle and loving, and he's tough when it matters. He also understands, though, that it doesn't always matter.
Wednesday, April 03, 2024
This Day
I had multiple possible topics today, but that was before I spent 1:15 at Gamestop trading in three consoles, followed by 1:45 at Firestone to have them tell me they couldn't repair my tire.
That's where my time went today. Blech. What a waste.
Plus taxes, house preparation, bank appointments, etc. You get the idea.
I did get to be a stuntman in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Highlight.