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Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Trash-posts

 When I erase my blog entries, they go into the virtual trash, but do not get deleted.
Some are time-sensitive, silly, insensitive (maybe)
but they were important enough to write.
I thought about returning them to blog-status. Why not?
I don't know, it's a passive thought.
And would they go back in order (November in the November-section) 

Or would they look like new headlines?

This is in one of my trashed posts, how flicking the caps-lock key on my keyboard is too easy to do.
Really cheap keyboards have a low-tech solution: remove the caps-lock key, or any other key, like in the bible (Matt 5:29-30)

Well this is the modern age, the age of hacking and remote control, and I was able to remotely disable the caps-lock key completely.
Yes it's scary (read recent news about ransomware kids), the things that go through their minds.
Recruit as many ransomware-evildoer-minions as possible, and take a cut of the ransomware!

But no one cares about keyboards, do they?
I mean, they might care what I type, especially passwords, but...
O nevermind, I successfully killed my caps-lock key, and that's what counts.


(right?)


Banana-gun commercials are creepy.
Protect yourself from hoodie wearers, buy a banana (they are skirting some obscure gun-advertisement law I am unfamiliar with.
)
WHY are they creepy?
one teeny example I know of



I need more quotes....



So you're shopping and get shot or sprayed, and the shooter is innocent, because you were (wearing a hoodie, or looking threatening?)

(Standing close to  someone looking threatening?)
The victim of a guy doing target practice?
Fucket.




It's all creepy. fucket.

Mean telephone-women (ATT) don't need another weapon

Speaking of weapons...

https://www.facebook.com/wilxnews10/posts/pfbid07bGmPU74sx73maZauZ52m9dGnDNx7FQnBKbB4Um18ZLhhtpDVYEM63bNCEXGaffrl

If you're hit, you would get knocked OUT of the crosswalk no matter what.
A teeny bucolic intersection close by proves some left-turners are on a mission from God to complete that left turn, walk sign-crosswalk or not.

You DARE to be pissed I'm lawfully crossing the street?
I can only go so fast anyway, and you showed up after I started crossing, but I'm not the subject of this trash-post-blog.



Google news made a big deal about a teen pissed at the world who wanted company.
Typical people randomly shoot or stab but this guy studied the literature and wanted to join.
Apparently the nypd offered a listening ear.

Right this exact second I don't exactly trust the narrative, but this is an ongoing story.
It's right up there with the Trump news.

It's a little odd that the top link was an FBI press release....
They must be so proud (there must be crimes 3x a day every day yearly, so ???)

Also  be careful what you read lest it become headline news




Dynasty (rough draft)





-------
Part of the game's player responses involves psychology.
User-Player exudes tact or belligerence.
Are you:
1.Flippant
2. an a-hole 
3  (AHH!!!)

and most of the time the responses are met with indifference and slightly different answers.
I accidentally  scared a nice lady offering help at the supermarket.
(WHY did I accidentally scare her, you ask?)
I responded too quickly?
I didn't use the right introduction?
I was primed to be scary by the nosy neighbors?
(I empathize with Scrooge, although I prolly owe him money)
"This is no time for Jokes!!" says one of the game-characters at one of my psychologically attractive responses.
Anyway, real-life tact isn't easy, (I swear)

Stepping on toes is an everyday occurrence....
But anyway:


Veilguard (see picture):
" Saving Treviso " (the quest-choice) isn't something I ever do, but will be doing, on this playthrough.
Spoiler alert: "Spite" never leaves, never goes away, never gets killed (apparently)
And rambling rants on reddit say so. I think.
They ramble so much, it's hard to figure out.
The game quests entitled
"Inner demons"
"Warden's best friend"
Matter tons to these people, so remember those quest names, although I don't know why yet.
I ignore quest titles and just play the game.
Whatsername "Caterina" gets saved no matter what, ignore the blather.
But
If I save Treviso *and* Caterina, as I will do on this playthrough, what fringe benefits occur?
Saving Dock-Town scenario: 90% of the game we believe Caterina, the "godmother" ("first Talon")
has been kidnapped and probably killed. Then towards the very end, Lucanis suddenly finds out that Caterina is alive.
Great.
What happens if you save Treviso instead of Dock-Town?
Caterina -- what happens?
Reddit is confusing as hell, people rant, then moderators moderate (kill) the thread.
Apparently one of the only things the game has going for it are the spoilers....I disagree, and after the fifth playthrough and the umpteenth quest, it would be nice to know the best questlines to pick and ignore
Cast members I'd rather not know better: Taash, Lucanis.
Lucanis is that mentally ill relative you need to treat with kid gloves in your childhood, or they'll fly off into a mood.
Their best mood is sullen and withdrawn, with occasional bouts of schizophrenia.
Taash is big and ugly and her mom is mean, and you keep looking over your shoulder for Republicans wanting to lynch you because you're talking about trans and gay subjects. 
OMG, Shhh!! Have some discretion, No immigrants here. (Qunari, Rivaini)
Fucket.
Unrelated rant I get pissed about every time I play it:
A guy is in a forest with his peeps. He's a group counselor, something.
He's too self-important to do his own quests, choosing instead to flag-down the player on a different quest.
He wants help desperately but scratches his lip surreptitiously and says, 
"I'll stay here, in case someone shows up.
He's a coward, I think. 
Using a threadbare excuse not to put himself in danger.
Poor player has to do his quest (people are in danger after all) then report back, then have the presence of mind to return to their own quest, all for nothing (they save people, that's the reward, I guess)






Tuesday, December 30, 2025

Two notes and a rant

 Minnesota has it in for their governor.

Apologies in advance for this overlong link, and I recommend You google it on your own.
But for at least a year, they've been trying different tactics to smear the guy.

(link

If they can successfully, maybe a republican can be elected. Maybe then they can swing the presidential vote, maybe then they can take over the world, etc.

(Link)
"this isn't about politics", some republican senators wrote. 
Geez.

Maybe the governor needs a $300,000,000 ballroom.

If the next President turned it into a VA - hospital-annex, who could stand against him??

They need a decent looking hospital anyway




Government waste is entrenched, it's institutional.  
But it's hard to explain and would require many pictures.

And on a related subject, why is that hospital so incredibly huge?
(No, not the "VA" above, looking a LOT like a certain motel I recently was incarcerated in)


50 foot ceilings.
It's "Non Profit".

Why did they dig up all the trees and the plants to turn around and put more trees and plants?
Um, it's part of the contract (for the non profit)

Why do bird-sounds suddenly appear when you're near in the subway station?
The benches, like antique suitcase-trunks?

I know the artist but how much he was paid or how rich he is,
Google is real quiet about.
Also the picture is only a representation of a "steamer trunk"

Someone got a zillion-dollar contract, that's why.
A luxury-train-car, I just learned, is one million, up from 400K

But

an amtrak subway car (no luxuries) is over two milllllion.


Those electric doors must be sooo expensive.
(It couldn't be the seats)
Is it true, Uncle Bob, that rich people avoid subways?
Can it Be??
even with the art and the fancy benches??







There's this hospital, with a hallway so long, so large, facing a window on one side, but with no doors, that absolutely everything inside your house would fit, and your neighbor's house too.
If there was some imaginary future plague, um, or if best buy started selling iPhones in it, 
They could accommodate a thousand people (we're still talking about a hallway.)
I keep thinking, the hallway is sort of an anti-gunman tactic (maybe) or they had a leftover zillion to fatten up the building.

What the hell should they spend all those donations, grants and contract-money on?
Gardens, Fat buildings.



I'm not happy with this entry, it's too f'n vague. 

I asked if "NBC" was republican, which I tend to get from the headlines on Google.
No, they "lean left"
Whadda load.
so not being batshit wingnuts makes you "lean left"?
I followed my slow-moving train, wondering what MAGA (Make america great again.) wanted great, again.

Google said Trump denounced the KKK but the KKK really liked him.
Actually they said a lot more than that, ultimately blaming democrats for the KKK.



Zoot-suit rebellion
Japanese internment
even the civil war.... make me want to draw conclusions about "great again,"
Imperialistic? Warlike? defending slavery?
You could have endless debates about what is great about US history.

Manifest Destiny
The Monroe doctrine
We treat South America like our inbred cousins, and Puerto Rico badly (I think).
We've wanted Greenland since forever.
But no one in US history has pushed harder to promote ugly-Americanism than Trump.


I'm no history buff, and everything I remember is from a really scary teacher...
But I (in my ignorance) am not bombastic on the subject; other websites have reams of bombast.

To the epithet "Bleeding heart" tossers,
I want to point to a bear living under a guy's house, that no one can get rid of, for fear of offending the bear, or his rich friends.
It can go both ways, and I try to strike a balance....but "Politically correct" resembles the really steep hill I live on, and it's hard to strike a balance.
Slip on a banana peel and die, sort of thing.


Monday, December 29, 2025

Christmas present protection (sort of)

 I'm no shill nor freebie-reviewer, although sometimes I would not mind being one.
This is about two different keyboard protectors. 
They are generic enough that I can speak about them without giving away who they're made by, as if I knew or cared.
The Keyboard is one of those expensive ones with too many keys, not well-known enough to have its own brand of protector. You'd need "Logitech" for that.
So anyway, the generic ones lay there, one like a shower cap, the other like a car floor mat. Neither fit well.
Do they work?
Which works better?
For protection, the shower cap, especially if you have dust, but the cap makes it hard to see the keys.
Nice concept, if it were only more transparent.
The mat leaves the very top, bottom and the sides exposed. I suppose it could be taped down with masking tape, but then it would look ugly.
You could hide the mat one when guests come over.
The shower-cap one is easily removable too, I suppose.
It's a close call.
Keyboards are for typing, so the mat wins, barely. The shower cap makes it harder to type.

For the next ten minutes (or so) I will attempt to use both at once.
In a very well lit room, you can make out the keys, and the typing part is easier if you use very firm strokes.

nonsense phrases meant to use the phases.
This is very suboptimal. 
No, it does not really work well.

A desk lamp to peer through to the keys is highly recommended.
Typos are very easy on this keyboard; it's a setting I have not researched yet;
You apparently can change the responsiveness of the keys;
I just never bothered. It's more for gamers anyway worried about key combinations, not typing.
Mine must be set to super-responsive, because a flick of an adjacent key spits out a typo.


If I promised not to proof read, could I test this in the relative dark?
This keyboard gets panned a lot for back-lit keys that aren't all that back lit.
Darkness comes:
Ok, this is by the light of the keyboard and my currently bright screen. I'm staring intently aT THE KEYBOARD, NOT BEING A TOUCH TYPIUST, BUT i'M MISSING MY STRAY KEYBOARD FLICKS, IF THERE ARE ANY.
O shit...
The caps-lock key is immensely easy to flick and barely has its own little indicator light (It should be brighter) And this sentence has tons of corrected typos.
O well.
Wut??!!
My very bright almost white lighted keyboard with the not-lit keys now has a red indicator you cannot really see unless you're *staring* at it from just the exact right angle....
I would be grousing here about the arcane key combos but that fantastic website they have set up is so cool, I don't care.
My adjacent typos still come through, though.









I figured I'd buy a phone-glass protector.
I had one on my Pixel 7, and was miserable generally with the fingerprint reader.
I never got it to work right, and I'm a very low-usage phone guy.
But the glass is pristine!
ummm, so if I had a new phone, should I get one?
"Amazon" says "no."
I trust most amazon users, maybe more than I should.
I have a brand sitting in front of me. Should I use it?
Amazon says "no."
uh, but then what the hell did I buy it for?
If you drop a dish and break it, would you blame the dish?
I *think* *maybe* I should just be careful not to drop the phone and then run over it with my wheelchair.
It's sort of a waking nightmare I have.
-------
Years ago when they still asked people for stuff, I got into a sort of an argument with an old codger because I wanted upside down fonts and he didn't.
SINCE THEN (you old rotting corpse) besides the webdings and wingdings they were so proud of back then, Emojis were invented. 
We had emoji's they just weren't called that.
Now I defy anyone to tell me who (that doesn't have way too much time on their hands manipulating ascii pictures)  uses webdings and wingdings. But upside-down fonts?

Practice quizzes are my first thought, as well as a certain children's magazine I cannot think the name of.
"Highlights" or something similar.
wth are "web/wingding's" anyway? Or am I straying too far from the train of thought, pigheaded assholes??
They've got a zillion fonts, and one of them should be flipped or right-side down.

<<>>^^^^^VVVV
and sometimes ⬆️↗️➡️↘️⬇️↙️⬅️^_____^ヾ(≧▽≦*)o
I want a document font-flip-per. 
But I've been voted down.
Italics are nice, but for polite company, they aren't enough (and neither is "French")



Hmm, yeah....
I meant, the one where you select text, and it becomes flipped at the click of a button (I think that's what I meant; it's been so long)
WORD has a convoluted method that does this (nice)
Maybe it got added after.



I shall attempt it buuut I think I would need the CSS code first?

Wait, so it worked? Or what? I'll reverify. OK! I cannot see the effect while editing, and I'm not at all sure you can either.
But there it is.
Now I can mutter properly, if I have enough memory left to remember to use it.

Friday, December 26, 2025

search for tomorrow x7

you never asked and this game is years old, but I like to remember the final battlefield assignments.
The part I Never get right comes earlier in the game, at the island with giant green fireballs that kill you.
Following an exact route or dying quickly is my fate.
If I could skip that part, I would, because I *always* fail that mission.

skipping to the end, having escaped the fireballs....

 https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/1ioeksb/dav_spoilers_all_endgame_test_results_for_all/?share_id=Dt169cphIXf6xzug90zeD&utm_content=1&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1


Playing all the soap operas the game has to offer, deciphering all puzzles and surviving all the parkour, 
Prolly means that the chart is meaningless.

But playing a kind of a minimalist game, ignoring allies and dumping the quests, the chart becomes important.
Who wouldn't want to dump having tea in the forest?
The part about Tea in the forest is mildly irritating sometimes (one out of two playthroughs) because Davrin's doppelganger will stand in the middle of the damn picnic, standing guard. I cannot google this camera-blocking moment. He carries on as if nothing is unusual about standing guard right in the middle of the picnic, blocking most of the camera's view, at crotch-level. This (to me) is highly annoying and I cannot google it. Google AI waxes philosophical about a figurative Davrin always being on guard, but I am being quite literal. A normally forgettable moment in the game becomes a big deal. 
Arguing with an angry mom? Mom leaves in a huff no matter how polite you are, so I chose "rude" and got the same responses.
Watching a friend's brother die ("could you stay with me till it gets light"?)
Picking flowers in the swamp? The teenaged doctor is nearly an exact clone of most of the elves in the game, but his dialogue is never-ending.  He wants flowers and to tell you his long sad life history.
He's pointless before and after.
I wonder if he was an added-in patched on quest to meet some quota.

I also want to edit in that the ridiculous stunts the player has to perform to fail to save the angry mom I was just talking about, are unnecessary except as a gimmick to get gamers interested.
Jump onto a thin plank several feet ahead, or fall into boiling lava.
Guess where I always fall?
My player character is small but the behemoths in the area must use the same routes, or know a secret route that isn't so suicidally stupid.

Most fun questlines: "Harding," "Neve."

"Anaris" is a mean spirit who abandoned his large computer in a ruined building.
Way later the narrator tells us that we (the cast of characters) have attracted way more attention than we bargained for, by stealing it and trying to repair it.
Except Anaris never refers to his computer or tries to get it back.
He's more interested in doing evil generally.
That was one example of a hard-to-follow storyline (several storylines.)

Critics love scenes in movies and TV shows that have the cast sitting or standing around talking.
I'm not sure why.
If you (as a critic) enjoy stage plays, I suppose it is a plus.
In a *game* it's boring, especially after the first playthrough. 
Well, if you love dialogue, you'll love this game.
(except the parts where the dialogue is repetitive filler, like when your companions prattle on about a subject for the third time as if it were the first, or when some guy is pissed that his boss inquired about him.) "More Dialogue! Flesh it out!" Must've been an order from the front office, I'm guessing.

"If you make it up, people will believe it" or words to that effect, apply to a reddit thread I just found.
I do not understand one of the characters' questions during one of those biggie discussions in the game, where I have to choose the gamely-correct answer or face disapproval.
A building turned black, BFD.
Did God make the building or did elves?
Who the fuck cares, but I need an opinion.
The Andrastian Faith is counting on me (apparently.)
The Correct Game answers count the most.
Belief in the fictional "Maker" is moot.
And another quiz, just in case you love quizzes:
I want to break in here to protest that Bellara doles out her quests slowly, 
and you can't complete what has not been offered.
But if you could, 
you could ace the quiz, according to the link.
Which says:
1. "Stop Gods"
2. "They wronged you"
3. Anaris
4. Blight
5. You stood
6. Worthy
7. Building a safe
8. Solas is helping
9. Respect
eight and nine don't look right, but I will try them anyway.
"Three" is the Bellara-quest I can't complete yet.

"tell banal" banana, Anaris

This game (generally speaking ) is the antithesis of santa beaters and their friends 

https://newrepublic.com/post/204755/republican-lawmaker-brags-beat-up-santa-photos



I woke up to doorbells. Before I awoke, I distinctly remember wanting to look one or two things up, as soon as I woke up (so it might have been wake-up-dream warnings.)
Now that I'm up, I forgot what to look up. This is about "friendly fire" because of a headline I just read.
In the game, friendly fire is mostly ignored, at least at the difficulty-level I am playing,
but most games I've played consider it to be rude.


Wednesday, December 24, 2025

politically-correct?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_the_Beautiful

 I forgot to ask, but who kept changing the words to the song?
Alabaster cities (where?) I always thought, maybe from watching a video, that the statue of Liberty was involved. Boy was I wrong.
"whiter jubilee" o...k
Could this have been a thought or a memory or an inspiration for
"Bioshock Infinite"??


If I could be allowed to drift off for a second...
The original words "O beautiful for Halcyon skies" which means, the pleasant way things used to be.
Now she (the author) could have been speaking about the pristine skies above Pike's Peak, in contrast to the smog in cities. But I wonder if she realized that she was living in what most people call the belle epoque, before the biggie wars and dirty cities. No, she might have been thinking of her own antebellum epoque, in (maybe) 1859 or so.



Halcyon vs spacious, hmm
Fruited vs enameled.

I'm confused.
(Why did they change words, or was it accidental?)

I'd have to buy a book to find out

I'll read the reddit version, if there is one.

Why are all "patriots" republican and survivalists? (sorry, nothing to do with the poem, more like commercials on TV.)

https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/17f96m1/mariah_carey_singing_america_the_beautiful_before/




Google AI refers to the "racially charged" third verse. I'm assuming that they meant the first two versions.
But the last version of the third verse goes on about refining gold... I don't really understand.



----------

Fireworks!! It's Xmas.
(Lol)

Bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night, that we are still here.





The ubiquitous pointing tool known as a "mouse" was probably first popularized by Apple, I wouldn't know the current line of propaganda...
Is it worth a blog entry?
No! But my wake-up dream was about trendy mice, and it kept morphing like wake-up dreams do. (get up) the really expensive new microsoft mouse looking like an ocarina (get up!) and old mice that people had borrowed and then abandoned, spread out all over the house.
When I got up for real, I wondered what a real modern Microsoft mouse looked like?
And I asked Google.
Google claims that there are $10 basic optical mouses.



It looks like "Staples" was the only store not capitalizing on the whole tariff trend.
The people insisting on "Microsoft" as a brand are probably rare anyway, and the last time I bought a genuine microsoft product (a trackball) 25 years ago, it was only partially assembled (the inside cable was never attached.)
So there would not be any real reason to buy that brand, unlike apple (I really haven't looked, but do apple computers need special apple mice?






And the next time you're at a party, mention that "Xerox" were the first to use mice commercially (not "Apple," nyah) but then the nerd and his girlfriend would know who invented mice, and the conversation would become boring.
Best not to bring it up in the first place

(Supply chains, the weather, tariffs)
A guy wonders if the gigantic warehouses full of unsold stuff from 2004 have been upgraded in price (because, "Supply chains, the weather, tariffs")
You'd think it would be illegal, but supply-demand capitalism at work.
Makes you wonder if this is all smoke and mirror stuff... contractors can charge more for stuff, beeeecause Trump has gifted them with excuses to raise prices on inventory gathering dust

old memories

 Someone at ATT had it against me. 
It's a gargantuan company and smaller, friendlier companies won my monthly money, but it's an old memory that comes up every once in a while.
Now that ATT owns everything everywhere (cable, satellite, DSL)
I got real curious what else exists.

Earthlink used to be a dial-up service that advertised by mail.
They might use ATT lines, I wouldn't know.
But I do know they advertise up to 5Gbps internet.
It all sounds nice until you factor in possible installation costs and deposits.
My current internet is 500-900Mbps, 76-110Mbps-upload.
All from an oversized transistor radio.

I just wondered.
I might edit in rates, or erase this.

(link)


They forgot to mention that "Windstream" owned Earthlink before, 
and dumped it, like some aging whore. Trive Capital might (I'm guessing) sell Earthlink (to, guess who?) but no one said that.
They also did not say why Earthlink sold itself, was it poor?

Anyway....

I would not sign up before knowing how much it costs.
And that's the ONE thing their website leaves out: the price.
But Google says it would be 75-100 a month, @1Gbps,
and I don't quite get that but I pay half as much.
Taxes and Fees extra

Taxes, Fees, AND 14.95 a month

The greatest thing about T-Mobile is, if you move or get evicted (fire, flood, remodeling)
you can take your modem with you, no paperwork or fancy visits from technicians.
Earthlink has that Too! For $10 more, plus tax and fees. 
O, and a modem-charge.
I don't like my T-Mobile speed looking like a very wavy line, but other than that, I like it.

And I don't know anyone with earthlink, but then, I don't know anybody anymore.
The TLDR is, nevermind.




Monday, December 22, 2025

First, the kidneys. then, (now what?)

 I never get dizzy, have fainting spells, etc.
I just ate a large lunch, and suddenly my head started falling off.
Was I concentrating too hard?
That's insulting...but it explains a few things.
Why does concentrating on a game wear me out, and
stopping the game (to read news) makes me feel better?
Actually I was "concentrating" on my next roast (Don't they sell "lemon zest" in cans?)

My new diet? "Ginger tea" is for dizziness. It works opposite, maybe.
Sugar too high / low? No.
It's something to wonder about.
Or I just need a nap. (Insulting again)

  • That one-eye blindness thing, is it like the lights got too bright and you can't see much through the haze?
  • "Twenty dwarves took turns doing handstands" Nope.
  • Balance? what Balance?
  • Headaches, maybe.
Right is left, left is right, except for mirrors...



Not that there is a freakin' manual, but mentioning to a doctor about the yellow-cloud
that looks like a washed out photo, might be one of those more serious things to mention
to a PCP on an official visit.
I just figured, my IOL is too old and needs replacing eventually.
So I'm staring at this gargantuanly humungous oil or water tank,
and my left eye sort of photoshops it out of my view.

Websites (some websites) really want to frighten you into going to see them, and other than technical jargon, do not have many examples
\
I like the first picture, and the second too, although they are not accurate.
They sort of vaguely describe it.


Most sites are very interested in showing you someone staring into a camera.
But the rare photos above are to be complimented.
If the last picture wasn't about night and glare, I'd declare it to be the winner.

Keywords:
Temporary
In one eye
Yellow haze
Blurry (but not really that blurry)


Not that you asked but WHY wouldn't my fancy-ass controller work in "Veilguard??
It worked *great* in "Baldur's gate 3."
There's this mysterious game controller linked to god-knows-what, LEECHING the controller commands!
OK it prolly isn't so sinister...
Wise ones say, (after I read all the dumbass solutions,) that unplugging your controller, looking in device-manager for a game controller, disabling it, and plugging back your controller, works.
Hey, finally something useful from reddit.

Veilguard knows this (Bioware?) and should have fixed it long ago.
I don't have any more comments, except maybe the weird software that Razer wants me to download, if I want to use any fancy features or lights on my new controller.
I didn't understand any of it, and I don't know why I would need an account, but nevermind, as long as the damned thing works.
The extra buttons are ignored, and there aren't any lights.
Can I be more specific about the ghostly controller?
Probably...I just don't care.

My keyboard apparently doubles as a game controller.

My controller has no colored lights, so shitcan the software for the lights.
My controller Does have extra buttons, so download the "For xbox" software (very confusing)