Jasonisms

Currently watching this movie which has about every actor in Hollywood having some role in it. Bill Murray, Steve Buscemi, Adam Driver, Selena Gomez and Tilda Swinton. It even has Iggy Pop and Rza. https://youtu.be/bs5ZOcU6Bnw And for all that star power it only had a 5.5 on  IMDB .

For long time friends, you already know my favorite band is  Garbage . They really are fantastic and Shirley Mansons's vocals are always wonderful.  So, you can understand my consternation this morning when I was listening to a  Garbage  mix provided by YouTube while making breakfast and my roommate said, "Oh, I love Garbage. Great band. I don't care what people say about her, but Courtney Love did a great job as the singer." Uh - what? "Courtney Love's never been in Garbage," I replied.  "Oh. What band was she in?"  "Hole," I answered.  [ Stupid Girl  by Garbage comes on.] "I didn't know Garbage sang Stupid Girl," he says.  I had to roll me eyes and walk away.

I haven't posted here in a while and thought I'd share a photo of the tree my roommate and his son put up.  Hopefully I'll remember to post here more often going forward.

Spent a few hours at Hillsborough River State Park near my brother's house today. I walked a couple of trails and ended up using all the memory on my cell phone taking videos and photos like the one above. I'd mistakenly believed I had my Garmin Virb with me, but when I tried to exchange one camera for the other I discovered how wrong I was.  At that point I left.  There are a few other parks in the area that I might try checking out tomorrow. 

At the store today and I decide to waste some time exploring the liquor department and guess what I find?  Peanut butter whiskey. Yeah, you read that right: peanut butter whiskey.  No, I didn't purchase it. Yes, I was tempted to.  Peanut Butter Flavored

It's a Crow, Not a Raven I used to take photos. Then Rufus died and I haven't really cared that much about photography. 

Guess who spoiled himself with a pedicure today in reward for getting the heat in his truck fixed? This guy. The Blue Stuff Working It Detox Sitting in a massaging chair while being pampered from the knees down? Totally worth it. 

Well, the good news is I was finally able to figure out why the heater in my truck stopped working. Not exactly the heater, per se, but the blower motor that runs both the heater and the A/C.  Last year about this time I replaced the blower motor and the blower motor relay (which is a giant PIA, if you wanted to know) so I was a little disgruntled when the blower stopped working this past spring.  But, it was spring and then summer and no need for heat or defrost, right? And so, I let the system go always in the going to get to it  phase.  The weather outside is frightful And then the weather turned. Not enough to worry about, but enough to remind me I had things to take care of in my truck. Earlier this week we had high temperatures in the teens and 20s, snow and freezing rain.  I had no heat or defrost. It was miserable.  So, today's one and only goal was to once and for all discover why the heater blower wasn't working.  With a multimeter I checked ...

Yesterday, was just under 70° F and the warmest day of the week.  Today is not going to get above freezing. Yesterday I was inside all day taking a class on (motorcycle) accident Scene management. Today I have been outside working on my truck. Something seems backwards about this. 

Earlier today I received a phone call. Not being in the room I let the call ring to voicemail.  A little bit later another call came in. Now, you need to understand: this is a bit unusual for a Sunday afternoon.  Not being in the room, I let the call go to voicemail again.  Then it rang again and I knew something was wrong. No one calls me this much on a Sunday. I walked in to the other room just as the last ring hit and I saw the name on the caller-ID. It was my brother. The only reason for him to call so frequently would be to let.me know something had happened to our father, who's been sick, or our mother. He asked me how things were going. I said they were okay. He then said, "Kristen's dead." Apparently, she'd been found in her car this morning and by the time the paramedics had arrived she'd been dead for hours. No one knows the cause yet as the autopsy is pending, but the leading theory is her alcoholism or something else in her system.  She leaves behi...

At the burger place ...  Me: "What's the All-American Burger?" Kid at Register: "It's kind of like a cheeseburger without cheese ... " Me: "I think that's just a hamburger."

My office is having their annual Customer Service Week festivities this week and today was Marvel Comics themed games like Captain America Shield Flying Disc throwing, Hawkeye archery with Nerf-style now and arrows as well as a very creative  Hulk Smash Jenga! And here is a little video I edited while at work today on my Android with  Power Director , which was annoying but which became incredibly easy as I figured out what to do.  I Can't Think of the Name

My company had a raffle for Avalanche tickets and for some reason I won. For those of you who know me, you understand why I was less than excited, but they were box seats and I enjoy a good time our as much as the next guy. Sadly, my friend decided the three hours notice wasn't enough time for him to get ready and I thought I was going to have to eat the ticket. I posted the free ticket on Facebook, Twitter and was close to posting it on Craigslist but instead I literally handed it to a guy on the street.  Turns out he was cool.  View from the Box

When the bank emailed me about an address change for an account.  My mother lives with my brother and I am on a shared account with my mom that I've had since I was 10 or 12. I get en email indicating the account's main address was changed and immediately (okay, it was almost  immediately) called the bank only to find it was because my mom changed the address on her end. 

I'm a sucker for a good scary movie. Not the masked killer type, but a good haunted house flick that's eerie and tense.  Unlike a lot of people, I thoroughly enjoyed the first  Paranormal Activity  movie (they kept getting worse with every sequel) and then  The Conjuring  until the ending where they blamed everything on witches. The Conjuring 2 was okay, but it just felt like the studio or director was making a caricature of a haunted house movie.  This movie,  The Changeling , I had thought would be worse than it was, but I can see it's actually quite formulaic in regards to this genre and thus it was good, but not great.  Immersion-juice

So, it would appear punctuation marks in the title of posts using the Blogger Pro app are also a no-go.  I changed the above title three times and thrice - yes, I said thrice  - it posted with the symbols instead of the aprostrophe. 

Well, the title sort of sums it up: it doesn't look like you can share from the YouTube app to Blogger Pro either.  I'd watched the movie  Hotel Artemis  earlier and wanted to share such with the boys that scroll this blog, but was unable to due to, well, there being no sharing option from YouTube to this Blogger app.  Don't get me wrong, it is still far and away a superior app to the homegrown Google one (which has been abandoned, I read) but it still lacks a couple of necessary features. Everything is is great though, so I'll probably use Blogger more often, even for micro - or, lightning - blogging.  You know, the way I used to use Google+. The only thing I don't see, besides what I've already mentioned, is the ability to add tags.  Princess

I just took a small 2-3 second video and tried to upload it.  I can confirm videos are not able to be loaded via the BP app.  GOP Ruled by Soviet Interests

Turns out, I can't reach out from this Blogger Pro app to Flickr for images. Amazone Drive? Sure. Box.com? Yessiree. Flickr? Nope.  Damn.  But, it's still better than the official Google Blogger app. 

Just testing to see if this new  Blogger Pro  app I downloaded autofills a preview of articles for linked URLs. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/trump-blasts-savages-ocasio-cortez-three-other-women-color-schiff-n1059941 It doesn't seem to be the case. At least not before posting. We'll see if it happens during the posting process. 

Decided to  try something new.  Turns out the official Google Blogger app is useless and like everything else useful in the Google ecosphere, it's been abandoned by Mountain View.  So, I discovered this third party app that will hopefully fit the bill.  Let's see if we can add photos. I'm going to try it three different ways. Share from within this app from Photos Taking a photo from this app. Then, in a new post, I'll try sharing from the Photos app to the Blogger app. Let's see what happens.  Old Legs, New Shoes The photo from camera does seem to auto rotate.  Okay, after loading the post the image automatically rotated, which is good, but I can't seem to upload from the Photos or Flickr apps to this new  Blogger Pro  one. At least this app is more useful than the Google one. 

Just changed the image upload setting to "smaller" than originally set in the hopes that blogger will actually upload images for me. ... it's not. In fact, one of the images not showing is one shared to Blogger and the other is one brought in from within this post. Neither are showing as posting. At least not on drafts. I wonder what happens if you try to take a photo from within the Blogger app. I don't think I've tried that in a while, but then again, I don't think Blogger has updated the app in a while either. Update: So, image sharing on the go is not happening in Blogger, but if I use the camera app from within the Blogger app and take a photo it appears to work. So, no edited images or sharing images from the device or the gallery on the go it seems.

This was a test to determine if Google out any effort whatsoever into this Blogger app. And the answer is ... no . I'd hoped to start blogging again but without autofill links (think every other social media site where a preview of articles pops in once the URL is posted) or image posting, what's really the point?

It's been a while since I've blogged. Not for want of writing, but because I've just been spending my writing time elsewhere. Usually GDocs, but occasionally back over at Google+ which Google finally fulfilled the prophecy and turned it into a ghost town. The reason for writing today is to comment on something I've had happen twice now: A month ago I was driving along and noticed someone on the side of the road who needed help. I stopped and offered my assistance only to be told the woman had been stuck for 45 minutes with no one stopping to help. Earlier today I was existing the highway and saw a guy sitting in his car on the side of the road. I looked at him as I passed and he looked at me. So, I swerved and pulled over on the side of the road. He met me about half way and explained how his tire and spare were both flat and his cell phone was out of minutes. He'd been waiting for at least an hour. He said two hours, but I later learned he was following someo...

I had a blog post - or at least an idea I thought should be converted to a blog post - and then I sat to write. Suddenly, everything I was thinking I'd write about disappeared. I really need to take note from now on. Oh wait! There it is! I remember! ... Last Friday my team at work had our quarterly "team outing." This is supposed to be a time to get together with your team in a more social setting, getting beyond the co-workers relationship and developing stronger relationships. Of 17, 5 of us showed up. Well, five at first. After the manager and a couple of other people left, another co-worker and her girlfriend showed up, bringing the total back to four. After three more left a final co-worker showed up. Of 17 total team members, 7 showed to the team outing. Which is pathetic and any manager worht their salt should be wondering why their team didn't, or wouldn't, show to a fun event. Our department has soft  start and ending times. That is, we can sta...

So, I stopped in here for two very real reasons: [1] I needed to grab a few things so I could make lunch this week (at work) and [2] I needed to use the restroom. As luck would have it, King Soopers had both and my most pressing need was the lavatory ... ... and that's where the trouble started. I used the stall for (reasons I won't get in to for the sake of all our stomachs) for it's intended purpose only to discover not one but both rolls of toilet paper were out. I think we can all agree we've been in this situation before whether out and about, in a port-o-potty, or even at home or work. So, I made my way over to the other stall expecting to find TP only to end up disappointed. No bueno, to say the least. Naturally there was no stockpile of TP in the restroom and going into the women's restroom would have resulted in the kind of attention I didn't need and no one wanted. After tidying up as best I could I decided to find a manager and let them k...

Earlier today I sent my brother a text message. Now, with normal people this might not be anything earthshaking, but for me it's actually something to note. Not that my brother and I don't get along, it's just that we're two very different people living two very different lives and rarely do we have anything common to discuss and, if you know anything about INTPs, I abhor small talk. That being said - I sent my brother a text message. It was a simple link to an article I'd recently read that was relevant to his career field. A few short minutes after hitting [send] my phone rang. It was my brother. A few months ago my brother had informed me our father was sick. He'd already been through kidney failure, some sort of cancer (esophagus, I believe) and a few other things I didn't even know about. This time it was his kidney and the perpetrator was once again cancer. But, my brother, an RN, said there wasn't anything to really worry about. So, I didn...

Earlier today I had the perfect idea to blog about. It was something both interesting and profound and would have changed your world view - or at least helped you align with mine - but when I finally sat down to write ... nothing . And so, here we are. Me, with nothing really important to write about and you wondering why you're reading this in the first place. So, let's see ... I started talking with a co-worker recently whom I had very little interaction with in the past. He had worn a "Hail Satan" shirt to work and one day I commented on it in a positive manner. He admitted he only wore it to upset the christians, but he was assured by the HR department that as long as they're allowed to weird their crosses and pro-christianity apparel, he can wear the apparel of his religion. He's actually quit intelligent, having a master's degree in religious studies. He knows far more about Abrahamic religions than I do and I know my fair share. He also teac...

Religion has no place in policy which our Constitutional founders expressly stated and yet, there are countless people on the Christian right who would ignore the founders' intent to pursue their own agenda. The Christian right that denounced every Democrat and left leaning politician for an array of supposed slights against their faith have unanimously backed the "porn star" President, #DonaldTrump. A man whom is thrice divorced, has never read the Bible, attended church services before becoming president and who is the antithesis of all that the Christian right espouses. But, it was never about religion and all about power. With Donald Trump the Christian right found their willing idiot and they're taking full advantage of the time they have to cement their foothold on the federal government for years to come. And, of course, the MAGA-morons over in #TrumpNation will never make the connection when they realize it's the religious right holding them back, not th...

A great, if long, read for anyone who has ever entertained or succumbed to the draw of geneology and/or DNA testing. This particular part denoted my own feelings on the matter, although I do feel it would be fun just to see what happens: Furthermore, over the past two centuries, it was not uncommon for last names to be changed, misspelled, or misattributed. Records were frequently lost, recreated, or even forged. We think of our identities as relatively fixed now because we have traceable identification cards, birth certificates, and social security numbers from a very early age. But none of that existed until recently. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/beastly-behavior/201801/the-meaning-and-meaninglessness-genealogy

There were so many things I thought of today where I wanted to sit down and write ... at least to blog, but I didn't. The problem with having a job where you can't alter your focus from your work is that when those moments of clarity or epiphanies happen you can't take advantage of them. I had thought to log into Linkedin and keep that open while I'm at work, but alas, I spend more time reading than actually posting. And yet, there was a little post made by an old Army buddy of mine on Linkedin that forced me to stop and think. This particular friend of mine happens to be a card carrying member of #TrumpNation. He spent 8 years ranting and wailing  about President Obama's policies, posting conspiracy theories, half turths, outright lies and whatever else came from the talking box and Fox News (America's most popular fake news source). This particular friend was on the birtherism bandwagon, nearly feinted the one time President Obama wore a tan suit and bel...

Trump just said "my father is German, was German. Born in a very wonderful place in Germany." Fred Trump was born in New York. pic.twitter.com/U6eWYPzjrJ — Tommy MMXIXtopher (@tommyxtopher) April 2, 2019 #DonaldTrump, #GlobalIdiot Seriously, it's like sometimes the man can't tell a truth to save his life. And the most troubling aspect of Trump's inability to tell the truth is that #TrumpNation believes his lies as though they are in fact the only truth they have ever heard.

That's All, Folks!

People are weird. I mean, really weird. Or fascinating, if you're job is to study and treat people. But who knows? Maybe none of us exists? Perhaps we're just delusions of some other being out there with schizophrenia. Cotard delusion continues to baffle medical professionals to this day. Current research links the disease to Capgras delusion, a condition that causes sufferers to believe that the people around them have been replaced by imposters. Capgras delusion is believed to result from neural misfiring in the area of the brain that recognizes faces. The hypothesis is that Cotard delusion simply takes this one step further; instead of having trouble recognizing and associating emotion with the faces of others, patients fail to recognize and relate to their own bodies. ~    https://allthatsinteresting.com/cotard-delusion

Maybe one day I'll write something about the rise and fall of Google+, but not today. Today I am merely experiencing the slow gasping death of the beloved and beleaguered social network. Goodbye, my friends. You were are great!

TrumpNation is Dumb And I'm willing to bet, no one who actually watches Fox News saw anything wrong with this text. If it's south of Texas, Arizona and California it must be Mexico, right? It's just another example of how the Faux News station keeps it's viewers ill-informed. In 2012, a Fairleigh Dickinson University survey reported that Fox News viewers were less informed about current events than people who didn't follow the news at all. The survey had asked current events questions like  "Which party has the most seats in the House of Representatives?"  and also asked what source of news people followed. The Fox viewers' current events scores were in the basement. This finding was immediately trumpeted by the liberal media—by Fox, not so much—and has since become known as the Fox News effect. It conjures the image of Fox News as a black hole that sucks facts out of viewers' heads. ~ https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/07/21/a-rigoro...

#DonaldTrump has not only crossed the lines of democratic and presidential norms, he's moved the lines so far out there as to not be seen. And what's worse, his fans, those in #TrumpNation, love him for it. In their minds it's class, decorum and intelligence that's keeping them from being successful or witnessing the wet dream of the Tea Party and the morons over at Fox News. The problem is that Trump has already crossed lines that a politician with a sincere commitment to democratic norms must never cross. https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/04/09/etrump/JPOQJZK9hUBdBx5rdPkWFK/story.html

I sometimes envy historians. They have the greater chance of uncovering these bits and pieces of history than the rest of us. Prayer-Meeting at Mason, O., Suddenly Broken Up Miss Ada Coleman Appears in an Unusually Striking Costume Special to the Enquirer. Mason, O., July 30.—The good people of the Methodist church here received a shock last night and it is very doubtful if they will soon recover from it. Miss Ada Coleman, one of the belles of Warren County, the daughter of one of the wealthiest farmers in this section, and the organist of the church, marched down the center aisle of the church at 7:30 o’clock last evening, attired in red bloomers of the most fashionable cut. For several weeks an epidemic of bloomers and baseball has engulfed this ordinarily quiet little town. A few days ago Miss Coleman, who is a leader and general favorite among the society belles of the town, appeared on a wheel in the main streets. She wore bloomers of the most pronounced type, red ...

A couple of things while they're on my mind ...  [1] Spent the past few hours helping a co-worker move. Shall I tell you about the giant cluster-F it was? First, we we're supposed to start at 10AM. At 8:30ish I get a text message to change it to noon. At 11:50 I'm walking up to her place and I get a other text message asking to move it to 2PM. But, I am there ... She told me everything would be packed and all I had to do was help load and unload. Apparently some things were packed, but a vast majority of it was not. They had friends over last night to help but they decided to drink and get high instead. Her house smelled like an ash tray and I was tempted to leave but literally stood out on the balcony so I wouldn't have to smell it while they were "getting ready". We take some stuff down to the UHaul to deliver to a friend's house and go to leave but the boyfriend decides to run through McD's and take her some breakfast so she has food in her s...