Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Snow Report
There's always a little patch of cloud blocking the view... and it's still trying to be winter up there. But the local ski hills are in trouble this year, for sure.
Monday, March 30, 2015
That Vancouver Transit vote...
If I didn't know better, I'd think I was someone important. I've had three calls from the Mayor's office, plus a gal reminding me about the issues and asking for my vote. I finally had to tell her that I simply couldn't vote. When she asked why not, as I hoped she would, I got a chance to tell her that all those phone calls and messages and mailings are no help if they don't send me a ballot. She very apologetically promised to get one into the mail right away.
It came today, with three - count 'em, three - envelopes within which to enclose it for sending back. We could fund more transit right there by using only one of those envelopes, I betcha. That's all I need. just the ballot, with a check-mark in the "Yes" box, and an envelope - the prepaid one - to mail it back. And then wait for them to gobble up more gridlock space for biking lanes, while they tack on yet more taxes on the gasoline. I really wish they'd tax the booze more instead. I quit drinking decades ago, but I haven't quit driving yet...
But seriously, I did vote "yes" in favor of a tax increase of half a percentage point, to be used to improve the transit system. I hope they hire meter maids with shorter skirts and better legs. And put bells on those goddamned bikers. I wouldn't have said that ten years ago, while I was still biking, but now that I've quit, everyone else still doing it is a hazard to navigation. And they get all the best girl-watching parts of the road... What'll you bet the Mayor is sorry he talked me into voting? He ought to have left me to my afternoon naps.
It came today, with three - count 'em, three - envelopes within which to enclose it for sending back. We could fund more transit right there by using only one of those envelopes, I betcha. That's all I need. just the ballot, with a check-mark in the "Yes" box, and an envelope - the prepaid one - to mail it back. And then wait for them to gobble up more gridlock space for biking lanes, while they tack on yet more taxes on the gasoline. I really wish they'd tax the booze more instead. I quit drinking decades ago, but I haven't quit driving yet...
But seriously, I did vote "yes" in favor of a tax increase of half a percentage point, to be used to improve the transit system. I hope they hire meter maids with shorter skirts and better legs. And put bells on those goddamned bikers. I wouldn't have said that ten years ago, while I was still biking, but now that I've quit, everyone else still doing it is a hazard to navigation. And they get all the best girl-watching parts of the road... What'll you bet the Mayor is sorry he talked me into voting? He ought to have left me to my afternoon naps.
Up on the hill today (Cypress Mountain Road)
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This (red marker) is a famous viewpoint about halfway up toward Cypress Mountain Ski Area, and it's where I took some pictures today...
My first was of where I came from, taken at 40X on the Nikon, so it's not nearly as close as it looks here...
This is the parking lot at the viewpoint, with my new Dodge in the foreground...
These are a couple of empty freighters awaiting births at a loading terminal in the inner harbor....
This is another, on its way in to its place in the "parking lot"....
This is Canada Place, with its famous sails-shaped roof, where the cruise ships birth during the season. It's also a convention center, and has an IMAX theater, and some pricey parking....
And before I left the viewpoint, I took this, to reassure myself that Spring really is here. Some days, it's hard to keep the faith, the way our weather's been. But these dandelions really help. When I was a kid, I made it into the weekly paper back home by finding the first dandelion in bloom there that year. The date was February fifth, and that was in northern Ontario, not in balmy B.C. This is a late Spring for us, but better late than never.
"You Make me Feel So Young"
Listening to 'Ole Blue Eyes' is like taking the train - you're there for the ride and you can't go anywhere else until it's over...
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Everything old is (almost) new again...
Many months have passed since I last fired up the old Technics Stereo to listen to some of my collected music, and I'm pleasantly surprised to find that it is every bit as good these days as it was when I bought it, back in the mid-1980s. One thing I got with it was a set of expensive "honeycomb" solid-state speakers. These speakers deliver a very rich and full sound and they still sound wonderful. Maybe I ought to be using this more often, but lately, I've instead been using headphones on the computer to listen to YouTube music. It's getting better now that they've discovered Dolby and Equalizers. But as I was reminded today, that still isn't a substitute for a good stereo amp with turntable, CD, and Tape decks and a nice collection to play with it.
More casting a jaundiced eye on the passing scene...
Computers have been around now since the abacus, and we still can't get it right....
With three operating systems on here, (Win-8, Win-8.1, and Win-10) it takes a while to get all of those updated, scanned, and cleaned up before the actual use can really get started. And I have to wonder why that set of actions couldn't all be automated in a manner similar to the regular Start-up procedure. Why do we have to go through all this "One little Indian, Two little Indian, Three little Indian" bullshit every time we fire up this goddamned contraption? If it can connect me to some bone-in-the-nose Bunga-Bungian in blackest Africa in just nanoseconds, why can't it confirm that all its systems are functioning normally, have up-to-date security, and can differentiate between their bottom ends and page nine?
And why are we being subjected to the tortuous blatherings of wanna-be TV personalities in the middle of the night when having the stations off the air for regular maintenance might be far more preferable? In more sensible times, they turned off the nitwits at midnight or one in the morning, put on a Test Pattern, with soothing music, and let you relax with your remnants of sanity intact. And they call this "progress". Progress, my ass! What do we need with some scrawny bitch in her sweats saying she dreamt she climbed Mount Everest in her Maidenform Bra, at three in the morning during a rainstorm? Or some long-dead actor from a disgustingly average series of the 1960s mumbling on about yet another cops-and-robbers epic that should have been flushed instead of filmed? Or a gang of guys who look like escapees from the wrecking yard who haven't seen soap and water in months trying to show us how to overhaul some tattered and bent old hulk of a sports car made in Britain in the 1970s? Britain has never been famous for making top-quality cars. They are much more famous for making some of the most persistent mobile repair bills known to man. That's why their women took up horseback riding....they couldn't depend on the cars. And why the Queen has a herd of dogs... to keep those horses off the lawn.
With three operating systems on here, (Win-8, Win-8.1, and Win-10) it takes a while to get all of those updated, scanned, and cleaned up before the actual use can really get started. And I have to wonder why that set of actions couldn't all be automated in a manner similar to the regular Start-up procedure. Why do we have to go through all this "One little Indian, Two little Indian, Three little Indian" bullshit every time we fire up this goddamned contraption? If it can connect me to some bone-in-the-nose Bunga-Bungian in blackest Africa in just nanoseconds, why can't it confirm that all its systems are functioning normally, have up-to-date security, and can differentiate between their bottom ends and page nine?
And why are we being subjected to the tortuous blatherings of wanna-be TV personalities in the middle of the night when having the stations off the air for regular maintenance might be far more preferable? In more sensible times, they turned off the nitwits at midnight or one in the morning, put on a Test Pattern, with soothing music, and let you relax with your remnants of sanity intact. And they call this "progress". Progress, my ass! What do we need with some scrawny bitch in her sweats saying she dreamt she climbed Mount Everest in her Maidenform Bra, at three in the morning during a rainstorm? Or some long-dead actor from a disgustingly average series of the 1960s mumbling on about yet another cops-and-robbers epic that should have been flushed instead of filmed? Or a gang of guys who look like escapees from the wrecking yard who haven't seen soap and water in months trying to show us how to overhaul some tattered and bent old hulk of a sports car made in Britain in the 1970s? Britain has never been famous for making top-quality cars. They are much more famous for making some of the most persistent mobile repair bills known to man. That's why their women took up horseback riding....they couldn't depend on the cars. And why the Queen has a herd of dogs... to keep those horses off the lawn.
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Vancouver's Translink: the transit system we love to hate
The Vancouver Sun's 'shoot-from-the-lip' columnist, and someone I've heckled frequently in the past, Pete McMartin, has done a piece about our upcoming vote on transit issues here, and you really ought to read it if you're in our area. You can read it anyway, of course, but it's really very carefully aimed at those here who love to throw monkey wrenches into machinery to watch the sparks fly.
So without further ado, here's Pete's precocious pontificating on public transit and its tractors and detractors, if you'll just click here and start reading. You can even move your lips if you like.
So without further ado, here's Pete's precocious pontificating on public transit and its tractors and detractors, if you'll just click here and start reading. You can even move your lips if you like.
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Speaking of Madonna... (We were, weren't we?)
I really shouldn't make fun of her - she's rich enough to buy me and sell me into slavery or something....and that might be a fun way to go.... who knows? But can she ride a Kawasaki at 143 MPH? That's what it takes to catch me....
Madonna: 56 going on 17, 'er something....
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Very few of us, on the sunset side of fifty, with around $800-million in the rainy day fund would be caught dead running around in our skimpies, playing the part of a teen rocker. So today's Question Everything is: "How do you define the term 'arrested development'?" Madonna, of course, would tell us she is going to do whatever the hell she likes whether we like it or not. And with her money, she probably can. Mark Twain said that nothing is more respectable than money. And Madonna certainly has 'class', even if it is all fifth.....
"WHAZZAMATTAWIDIT?"
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Question Everything:
So, what the hell is a "STONG"? Is it bigger than a breadbox? Hotter than a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model in her unmentionables? Smellier than a pile of horse-buns and cow-pies out behind the barn? Is it big and hairy, and all teeth and arsehole? Or could you let the kids play with it safely? What IS it?????
And after we get that settled, how do we know these guys are looking at stuff colliding out there? What if it's just come out of a white hole, and is forming new accretion disks, like in cell-splitting, where the two like one another, but don't want to co-mingle, tingle and touch? The universe is expanding. Assume that's the same as "growth". Is this how it fills all that extra space? I mean, if these guys can't even spell, how can we trust what they're saying about other stuff? What if they spelled that wrong too, and it doesn't mean what they think at all? They really should stay where they're at until we can come where they're to, and check personally.
Friday, March 27, 2015
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The Internet's "Bad Guys" aren't too bright...
If you're one of those guys who are too lazy to work, but not too righteous to steal, and you're trying to con me into turning over control of my computer so you can turn it into a zombie relay server to spread your shit all over the world, don't call me at 11:21 p.m. pretending to be calling from Microsoft, when I'm in the same time zone they are, and I know they don't do this especially seven and a half hours after their offices have closed for the day.
So get your act together, and keep it off my telephone line. I'm one of the testers for Windows 10, and I have a direct link to Microsoft on my Desktop, if we need to communicate about something. Microsoft doesn't make house-calls, and they don't telephone anybody, and if you telephone them it's going to cost you $100.00 in U.S. funds to speak to one of their technical experts. And I wasn't born yesterday, in case anyone is wondering.
So get your act together, and keep it off my telephone line. I'm one of the testers for Windows 10, and I have a direct link to Microsoft on my Desktop, if we need to communicate about something. Microsoft doesn't make house-calls, and they don't telephone anybody, and if you telephone them it's going to cost you $100.00 in U.S. funds to speak to one of their technical experts. And I wasn't born yesterday, in case anyone is wondering.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Testing....testing.....testing....???
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I think I just hit "The Great Wall" trying to ping China's central news agency.....
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...but it's definitely alive and well and living in Beijing - they just don't want any two-way exchanges, it seems. So I can't tell them to fuck off with their Spam! Too bad - I really wanted to do that. With a surname like mine, one imagines even a trained kangaroo could deduce that I'm not natively Chinese....
The new Dodge Journey...
There's no Owner's Manual in the glove compartment of it, and I think I found out why not.....
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You can download any manuals you want, including for the radio/disc player from this website, free of charge. And if you want a PDF Reader that isn't Adobe with its "iffy" security, then try SumatraPDF.....
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...and then you can browse through the manuals in comfort, on your computer...
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...and I thought I was buying a car that I'd be familiar with.... and I'm not, because it's almost a mobile computer. It has a touch screen on the instrument panel much like Windows 8 or Windows 10. Touch what you want, and it lights up and starts doing things. And the ignition isn't a key. It's an electronic signal generator that "talks" to the instrument panel and tells it that it's OK to start the engine now, if you put your foot on the brake pedal, and then push a button on the dash. And the steering wheel has little buttons on its underside, for controlling the radio/dvd player and changing channels, etc. So think "computer on wheels" and you won't be too far wrong. It's almost magic. And I love it!
Added Later (07:00 a.m., 26 March 2015)
I was back at the dealership later, to pick up the spare key fob, and they also gave me a nice little pouch with the owner's manual in it, and there's also a DVD in there, with video on it, showing a familiarization tour of the controls.
So you have a choice - the hard copy, or your PC downloaded version, or both.
I haven't put that key fob transmitter on my key ring. Instead, I put it on a nice new shoelace, long enough to hang it around my neck inside my jacket. That keeps it within the required five feet of the vehicle while I'm entering, and still leaves my hands free for other things. And once inside, it's still near enough to the instrument panel to activate it. So it's almost like not needing a key at all. As long as I'm wearing my entry device, I simply grasp the door handle in the prescribed manner, and it unlocks and lets me in, and then all I need to do is step on the brake pedal, while momentarily pressing the "Start" button, and the engine starts. Then, step on the parking brake to release it, and shift into gear, and off we go. As we say about our computers, "It's very user-friendly." It even shows you a screen with instructions on how to get it to start, should you need that. We're getting very close to having cars smarter than their drivers.
The programmable viewing panel, among other things, lets you set the clock, and configure the sound system, and also configure many other settings, and it's almost like setting up a new computer, because that's really what you are doing. It will remember your selections, and control the devices accordingly, so you can "tune" your vehicle to your own preferences. That's not like my first Dodge, back in the 1950s. But the name's the same, and so's the game.
John Francis Dodge and Horace Elgin Dodge in their first car wouldn't likely recognize my 2015 model, except that like the original, mine still has big wheels, and the suggestion of fenders in the body side panels, and nice wide door posts, which now conceal air bags. And mine has a roof, because sometimes, even in Paradise, it rains. And those old ragtops didn't stand up to the wear and tear very well. Oh, and I almost forgot - mine still has a 4-cylinder engine, for which these guys were famous. But back in the 1950s, we put two fours together, and made a world-class V-8. A Chrysler-built V-8 could run rings around a Ford, and 'Uncle Tom' McCahill loved Chrysler 300s packing a punch like nothing else on the road. Those cars could almost fly. A couple of times, mine did - for very short distances - while I was laying on the floor out of harm's way until the dust settled. We didn't have seat belts back then, because we didn't want to be tied down when it came time to hit the floor....
You can download any manuals you want, including for the radio/disc player from this website, free of charge. And if you want a PDF Reader that isn't Adobe with its "iffy" security, then try SumatraPDF.....
...and then you can browse through the manuals in comfort, on your computer...
...and I thought I was buying a car that I'd be familiar with.... and I'm not, because it's almost a mobile computer. It has a touch screen on the instrument panel much like Windows 8 or Windows 10. Touch what you want, and it lights up and starts doing things. And the ignition isn't a key. It's an electronic signal generator that "talks" to the instrument panel and tells it that it's OK to start the engine now, if you put your foot on the brake pedal, and then push a button on the dash. And the steering wheel has little buttons on its underside, for controlling the radio/dvd player and changing channels, etc. So think "computer on wheels" and you won't be too far wrong. It's almost magic. And I love it!
Added Later (07:00 a.m., 26 March 2015)
I was back at the dealership later, to pick up the spare key fob, and they also gave me a nice little pouch with the owner's manual in it, and there's also a DVD in there, with video on it, showing a familiarization tour of the controls.
So you have a choice - the hard copy, or your PC downloaded version, or both.
I haven't put that key fob transmitter on my key ring. Instead, I put it on a nice new shoelace, long enough to hang it around my neck inside my jacket. That keeps it within the required five feet of the vehicle while I'm entering, and still leaves my hands free for other things. And once inside, it's still near enough to the instrument panel to activate it. So it's almost like not needing a key at all. As long as I'm wearing my entry device, I simply grasp the door handle in the prescribed manner, and it unlocks and lets me in, and then all I need to do is step on the brake pedal, while momentarily pressing the "Start" button, and the engine starts. Then, step on the parking brake to release it, and shift into gear, and off we go. As we say about our computers, "It's very user-friendly." It even shows you a screen with instructions on how to get it to start, should you need that. We're getting very close to having cars smarter than their drivers.
The programmable viewing panel, among other things, lets you set the clock, and configure the sound system, and also configure many other settings, and it's almost like setting up a new computer, because that's really what you are doing. It will remember your selections, and control the devices accordingly, so you can "tune" your vehicle to your own preferences. That's not like my first Dodge, back in the 1950s. But the name's the same, and so's the game.
John Francis Dodge and Horace Elgin Dodge in their first car wouldn't likely recognize my 2015 model, except that like the original, mine still has big wheels, and the suggestion of fenders in the body side panels, and nice wide door posts, which now conceal air bags. And mine has a roof, because sometimes, even in Paradise, it rains. And those old ragtops didn't stand up to the wear and tear very well. Oh, and I almost forgot - mine still has a 4-cylinder engine, for which these guys were famous. But back in the 1950s, we put two fours together, and made a world-class V-8. A Chrysler-built V-8 could run rings around a Ford, and 'Uncle Tom' McCahill loved Chrysler 300s packing a punch like nothing else on the road. Those cars could almost fly. A couple of times, mine did - for very short distances - while I was laying on the floor out of harm's way until the dust settled. We didn't have seat belts back then, because we didn't want to be tied down when it came time to hit the floor....
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Tuesday, March 24, 2015
A little more "This and That"...
Back in 2006, I quit smoking because it felt like the end was near. But instead of just spending that cigarette money on other things, I put it into the savings account every month. Yesterday, I paid cash for a new 2015 Dodge Journey 4-dr sw., with all the bells and whistles. I'm telling you this because I think I'm entitled to some bragging rights for doing it. If I can do it, so can you...
Ask for Tom. Tell him Old Ray sent you...
President rates another...
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I'm with President Obama. I think Netanyahu is a two-faced lying s.o.b. who wouldn't recognize integrity if it bit him on the ass! He's been a warmonger all his life, and he ought to die that way. And the sooner the better!
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