My electric blanket died! Oh the pain, the pain.

I still have my electric mattress pad in the closet but at the moment I'm not sure I really want to bother ripping apart my bed and remaking it right now.

Maybe tomorrow. I'm sure I'll survive the night.

From The Register:

"At the end of last year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued five of the largest TV companies, accusing them of excessive and deceptive surveillance of their customers."

If you didn't know by now, smart TVs with their internet connections are spying on you. Microphones and cameras are listening and watching AND the sets can take screen shots of whatever you're watching. Streaming? They're watching. DVDs? Watching. Off air? Watching.

It's 1984 Big Brother watching. That's why I got my new-to-me TV from the local Goodwill that does NOT connect to the internet. It's just kind of shocking that a champion for privacy is coming from a Texas Republican.

Oh, wait. They're just worried that China is harvesting the data - not red blooded American corporations shoving ads in your face. Never mind.

I'm a bit of a plane nut so I've been watching the F-35 fighter jet since it was rolled out in 2000.

Let's say I'm not impressed.

On paper it's a marvel. Speed, stealth, horizontal and vertical take off - this plane does it all!

On paper. In real live, I've seen figures of between 30 to 50 percent operational. That means 50 to 70 percent are hanger queens. There's the software updates, the mechanical fixes, the spare parts shortages - the list goes on and on.

Then there's the pilot shortages, the mechanic shortages the worker shortages (and so expensive!).

Let's talk about how expensive the F-35 is. The costs keep going up up up - oh my.

let's revisit that software. Proprietary. Locked down. Inflexible. Expensive.

Cold weather performance? Eh... I don't think they want to talk about that.

The Gripen? Already flying and certified. Built in Sweden for cold weather, short runways, easy maintenance. Can be built in Canada and be ready in 3 years. That means it can be flying with Canadian pilots sooner than the already ordered F-35s can be delivered.

I'm going to chance a historical comparison from World War 2:

The German Tiger Tank was on paper a better tank than the American Sherman*. The Tiger has a better gun, better armor, superior optics. Its gun was designed to kill tanks which it was really good at. In the real world it was tricky to build, guzzled gasoline, broke down frequently and needed intricate and difficult to make spare parts. Field repairs? Unlikely. It also needed highly trained crews to operate.

The American Sherman used less gas and was easy to repair with interchangeable parts. It could be built fast and training was quick. It was designed to move fast, support infantry and blow shit up which it excelled at.

Sure, a Tiger could face down four or five Sherman tanks without a problem. The next day there will be four or five more Sherman tanks with another made from the ruins of the ones from the day before. And they'll be fully loaded and full tanks of gas. The Tiger will be running on fumes.

Logistics matter.

Let's talk environment. On the flat, hard Russian plains the Tiger ruled. in the frozen forests and narrow roads of the Arden... not so much. It was heavy and could get bogged down in the snow or mud. Narrow roads limited its range and mobility. It suffered in the cold. Of course, the whole German offensive relied on seizing the fuel deposits of the Allies. The Allies, with the Undersea pipelines and the Red Ball express had fuel to burn and they did burn it instead of letting it fall into German hands. After the Battle of Bulge Tiger tanks were often found fully intact... and out of fuel.

Logistics matter.

Like the Tiger, the F-35 is the best on paper and in the right environment. After 25 years it's still in development. The Gripen is ready NOW and is designed to work in the Great White North.

And you won't have to bother with old fuss and diapers tRump.

Choose wisely, eh?



*Yes, the early Sherman tanks in North Africa were shit: their ammunition was stored poorly. Changes where made to isolate the ammo and protect it from blowing up: something the Russians still haven't learned..

We love you!

Australian man takes down an active shooter with his BARE HANDS!

Good Guy needs no gun.

While Australia has few mass attacks with guns because they got rid of most of them and strictly reduced the availability of the rest, we in the good old U S of A get to experience a bumper crop of gun related violence.

Damn.

From the Washington Post:

"Trump’s desire to go big with the project has put him at odds with architect James McCrery II, who has counseled restraint over concerns the planned 90,000-square-foot addition could dwarf the 55,000-square-foot mansion"

That's the point. He must overshadow everything. Everything he builds must be bigger and better and more glamorous that anything before him.

At the same time he tends to cut corner and stiff contractors so that what he actually builds will be shoddy and wrecking ball ready. He's all facade and no foundation. He can't even get his bronze to look right.

Back when I was still at work someone left a plastic bag of peppers in the give-away table. I was hankering to make some chili and snagged them at the end of the day. They were small orange and red peppers - about a dozen each. Knowing the locals I thought they might be a variety of sweet Italian peppers. I eventually tossed the bag in the freezer to make chili (with lots of beans) another day.

That day was today. Yeah, I was hoping that I'd make a nice spicy batch this time.

I've handled green, red and yellow sweet peppers without issue. I've even cut up Jalapeño peppers without an issue - but I got half way through cutting up these guys and my fingers started burning. OMG. Hand washing did little to stop the burn. I could only stand to wash in cold water. I ended up using only a quarter of the peppers in the chili. I washed my hands again and again, soaked my hands in oat milk (it was cold so it helped) and then applying aloe. It's been about 3 hours since I chopped up the peppers and my finger don't burn but they hurt.

I did an internet search and I think they were Habanero and or cherry peppers. The chili smells scorching. I'm just letting it simmer right now. I think tomorrow I'll go get a few more cans of beans to dilate the chili a bit more.

Learned my lesson - always identify your peppers before cooking. Feel free to laugh at my silly mistake.

I just hope the chili's not too spicy. I like a good chili but not if it burns both ways.

My alarm clock is OFF. Life is good.

My sleep schedule is still a mess. I have a hard wake up at 5 AM - which I've had for many years. I've decide to get up, get breakfast, do laundry if needed then go back to bed.

*Falling* asleep is still an issue.

But I've got plenty to do. Some things I initial don't want to do until I start in on them, then thing go well. Writing, making music, doing my YouTube videos - the initial ramp up is hard (because I'd rather lie around and read) but once I start I can flow.

I have to do adulting today - checking my retirement accounts. I prefer a hands off approach - have a general scheme and let my paid professionals worry about the details. I've got a meeting with them this week so I'd best be prepared. Changes will probably have to be made so I'd best be aware of things before I walk in.

Stay warm folks and release the Epstein Files.

Although I no longer have to go to work, I still have work to do.

Now that I'm not rushing around I'm noticing how cluttered and dusty the house is. I've found projects I'd forgotten about and equipment that I thought was good are in need of repair.

Practicing playing my guitar. I still suck. I need to get my system reset up so I can practice my bass too. I like playing the bass guitar, even if I'm not very good at it.

I've also joined the local senior center (wow, look at all those old people) and looked over their rather limited library. There were a lot of romance novels there - I'd say 90 percent of the library is romance novels! I need to weed my book collection so I'll be donating generously.

My sleep schedule is f*cked. I can't fall asleep until after 10, wake up at half past midnight, them I'm awake for hours. I fell back to sleep around 3, woke up around 4, at 5 I decided I was hungry enough to eat breakfast. And here I am. I'll probably go back to bed and get a few more hours, hopefully.

This will be my last day at work. I've been at the television station since 1989. I've done a variety of things but two basic jobs: TV Master Control back when everything ran off of video tape and TV Traffic. In the words of the Grateful Dead "What a long strange trip it's been". There's been good times and bad times, good folks and bad folks. Fortunately, the good has outweighed the bad.

They may call me back for things... I don't know. A lot of people - in particular my boss - don't want me to leave. I've trained two people to take my job (it's complicated) so the station should be okay.

So many feelings.

-m

Years of working in TV Master control with whirring computer/server fans and the whine of tape machine gradually destroyed my hearing leaving with with a lessened sense of tone and pitch along with needing hearing aids just for normal speech.

I've picked up the acoustic guitar again hoping to retrain my ears. I was playing my housemate's father's guitar - a small 'parlor' guitar from the early 1950s and although I used a tuner to tune the strings it just sounded off. It needed refurbishment so I handed it off to a guitar repair shop.and it came back in better shape, but it still sounded off.

I started checking individual notes and discovered the intonation was off. If I tuned the guitar strings with a tuner the chords were out of tune. So I tuned it to itself and noticed a distinct difference; it sounded... better. It may be one of those guitars that you need to tune to itself.

This experience shows that I have retained some sense of pitch which is a good thing. I'm hoping to spend more time playing guitar and bass to re-educate my ears.