Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Web Log for 12.9.24

So apparently whatever cyberglitch caused my tabs to be lost, this weekend, is also causing Blogger to reopen links from my reading list that weren't showing up when they originally went live, years ago. Lots from 2020-2021, when my whole town had its server problems. Some from 2014, when I wasn't even online enough to notice the links that never showed in my Reading List. As a result I now have so many things on the Reading List that I really want to read, that they won't all fit on one screen at one time. Lots of poems and pictures...now we'll see how many I make the time to open today.

Animals

Like many people I just don't warm up to a pigeon. (This one was in Britain so he's not a Central Park pigeon.) They are clever birds, though, and pretty in their own way.


And this bird blogger doesn't warm up to herons. Meh. You'd think they'd look to other birds like dragons and demons, because they are bigger than most birds and they do eat other birds' young. The funny thing is that they don't, apparently. Herons isolate themselves when they're fishing; once fed they're more sociable, and smaller birds don't seem to mind their company.


Belated Sunday Sermon

For those who say "People don't choose to be (insert category of behavior Christians call sinful)"...Not consciously. Nobody says "I want to be an alcoholic" or "I want to be a single parent." People do say "I want to go pub-crawling with my school friends" or "I want to sleep over at my boy/girlfriend's house when no one else is there." Or, alternatively, "I can't afford to deal with that, so youall go on and have a big night out. I need to work on my term paper." They go ahead and sound pathetically uncool, and then next year they're the ones their formerly cool friends are asking for emergency loans to make up a child support payment. Sometimes it pays well to be a nerd.


Computers, Annoyance Factor of


Google says the line was first posted on Reddit by Shadow Seal, and someone commented, "If they smell intense fear or excitement it may even trigger a Windows update." (Lol. Does anything not trigger a Windows update?) The cartoon was added later, on Facebook, by Ribolov Istra. The meme's been in circulation for about five years. 

It still seems to me that, if keeping the Internet going and making it part of the workplace is considered a good thing, then programming computers in this sort of adversarial position toward their owners can't possibly be a good idea. 


Hurricane

You may reasonably want to know the position of this web site on those conflicting reports about how many people in North Carolina are still homeless. You may reasonably imagine that what I was doing on Friday was driving southward to have that look. The sad truth is that nobody else in Gate City wanted to do that. The people who do serious shopping have already shopped, many in places that saw enough hurricane damage to need major cash infusions for their businesses, and now they're freshening up their guest bedrooms. One person said, "Of course people in Asheville are probably still living in tents. Right on the main street of Weber City, under the bridge, we have a man living in a tent."

"Does he work, is he disabled, or is he on drugs?"

"I think mostly the last one."

And that seems to be the assumption my more prosperous acquaintances are making about people in North Carolina who are still camping in tents, too. And the possibility does undeniably exist. 

If any North Carolina readers know of a sober, employed or employable, person or family who is still in a tent, PLEASE SHARE. Obviously no details that might attract bad things/people, but please use either the comments section or the e-mail address at the bottom of the page to describe the situation (e.g. "Middle-aged couple, one working part-time, one job hunting, camping on site of ruined house near Littletown").


Scalzi fans recommend some places where people can just send money, if they so choose, in a comment sandwiched in among some suggestions some readers may find obnoxious, at:

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