Here comes the arctic blast

It just finished raining here, but the wind is still gusting.  I can hear it beating against the house.

Now the really cold air is going to move in.  The forecast says it'll get down to eleven degrees today, and the temps won't get above freezing again until Sunday.  Christmas Eve day will be frozen solid the whole day.

It usually doesn't get this cold around here until January or February, if at all.  This is pretty chilly for December.

The good news is that a good hard freeze should kill some of the dormant bug eggs, thus giving us a summer with fewer bugs.  Fingers crossed.

The other good news is that I'm done with all Christmas preparations.  I need to clean the bathroom and do a few other thing, but that's it.

Keep warm, folks.

Update

Okay, it's been a while since my last blog post, and I apologize for that.  The holiday season is upon us, and there are things to do, places to go, etc.  I've made a few forum posts in the interim, but it's a lot easier to respond to a forum post than it is to initiate a blog post.  My brain simply isn't in the right mode most of the time.  But as the holiday season winds down, that should change.

The good news is that my Christmas shopping is done and everything is wrapped.  Also good news is that I haven't had a migraine in at least a couple of weeks.

On the downside, we lost Coach Mike Leach recently, and that sucks.  The crazy pirate was always a hoot in press conferences, and he brought his eccentric genius to the football field and gave us some memorable offenses.  R.I.P., Coach.

My books are now live on Smashwords!  The Draft2Digital acquisition of Smashwords seems to be complete now, or at least complete enough, because my books went live on that retailer a few days ago.  Welcome, Smashwords shoppers, and I hope you like my stuff.

I guess that's all for now.  If you're traveling for Christmas or New Year's, then I hope you get there and back safely.

Until next time...

It's raining acorns

It's been a long time since I've seen this many acorns.  Or heard, rather, not seen, because it's the racket that I'm noticing.  Just a constant refrain of rustles and bangs and thunks.

Does this mean we're in for a colder-than-normal winter?  That's the conventional wisdom, right?  I honestly don't know.  I'm not a farmer, nor do I subscribe to the Farmer's Almanac.

Right now, it's unseasonably warm.  It's 78 degrees at the moment.  It should be fifteen or twenty degrees colder.

So I don't know anything about any of this.  :/

All I know is that there are lots of leaves on the ground, and those leaves won't mow and bag themselves.  *sigh*

R.I.P., Killer

Jerry Lee Lewis has passed away at the age of 87.

Nicknamed "the killer," he was one of the trailblazers of rock and roll back in the 1950s.  His life and career were turbulent, and I won't rehash the drama here.  Instead, let's remember the talent and the music and celebrate the man's contributions to culture.  He was a legend, and he'll be sorely missed.

R.I.P., Jerry Lee.

Rough week

It started Sunday night...

I was doing some handyman stuff, and I dropped a screw behind my workbench.  I got down on my hands and knees to look for it.  While down there, I managed to jab myself in the eye with the handle of my bench vise.  My contact lens popped out, and my eye hurt for several minutes afterward.  I don't think the contact was damaged.  My eye didn't look injured when I examined it in the mirror, so I figured I'd simply wait and see rather than go to a doctor.  I've only worn my glasses this week to give the eyeball a chance to heal.  There was a slight bit of stinging on Monday, but it wasn't bad.  I think it's going to be fine, and I'm going to try wearing my contacts tomorrow.

On Tuesday night, I had a migraine headache.  All night.  Well into Wednesday, too.  My headache mostly subsided later on Wednesday, but I still felt tired and weak and a little queasy.

I'd like to feel normal on Thursday.  And wear my contacts, too, so I can actually see things.  I've got a social engagement this weekend, and I'd like to be... well... sociable rather than zombie-like.

On the plus side, there's lots of fall color here at the moment.  The sourwood tree is particularly striking, full of bright-red leaves.  It's actually been a pretty nice fall so far.

Tentative measures

I knocked down three Joro webs and killed two spiders.  They were in my way, so they simply had to go.

The silk is very strong, stronger than I anticipated.  Instead of just waving a broom at the web and easily sweeping it away, I had to sort of hack at it.

I might have gone on to take down a few more webs, but I got the willies something fierce, so I had to stop.  You can't fight the willies, man.

I watched a male Joro groom his female mate.  Or that's what it looked like, anyway.  Fascinating stuff.

I'll get around to knocking down more webs eventually.  I can't have trick-or-treaters running into them, after all.  For the time being, though, I'm content with the tentative measures I've taken.

Joro overlords

In recent weeks, my home has been completely taken over by Joro spiders.  I'd never seen one before until a few weeks ago, and now they're everywhere.

I've been reluctant to knock down their webs, and I'll tell you why.  For one, they're a novelty in this part of the world, and I'm a curious cat.  For another, they spin yellow silk that shines like gold in the sunlight, and I think that's pretty cool.  Thirdly, they eat a bunch of insects.  The webs are littered with their trophies.  I think maybe the native insects don't "see" the webs as well as they see the webs of native spiders.  Whatever the reason, the Joros are absolutely slaughtering the bugs on an industrial scale, and that's a good thing.

The creepy part is that there's so many of them right next to the house.  The native spiders have never behaved like this.  It truly feels like an invasion, a conquest.  The Joros are our new overlords whether we like it or not.

Now if we could just teach them to eat yellow jackets...

Rough week

I've been sick this week and have had headaches pretty much all week.  I think it started Monday afternoon when I was bitten on the thumb by a mosquito.  A few hours later, I started to feel achy and weird.  My guess is that the mosquito gave a bug of some sort.  Who knows.

In any event, this week hasn't been fun, but I'm starting to get back to normal, I think.  I did some pushups today, the first exercising I've done all week.  My stomach's still not quite sure if it wants to digest food or not, but it's coming around.

I'm looking forward to colder weather.  When I get sick, I have a hard time dealing with heat.  I can deal with the cold better.  I wasn't always like this.  I used to be able to deal with heat better than cold.  But I'm older and fatter now, so I guess this switch was inevitable.

The hummingbirds are absolutely swarming at the feeders, and I've really enjoyed watching them this summer.  There's at least a dozen of them, and maybe closer to two dozen; it's hard to estimate with any accuracy due to the fact that they're constantly on the move.  When I'm sick, I stay inside due to the heat, so watching the hummers is one of the few ways I can enjoy nature from inside.

I've made a dietary change in recent weeks, and I think I'm losing a little weight.  Very slowly, but it's happening.  Let's hope I'm right.

Take care, folks, and make preparations for a winter full of hardships, because I've got a bad feeling about it.

Which way now?

I mentioned previously that the down-gaps on the S&P had filled in.  I also mentioned that there seemed to be resistance at around 4180.

Well, the market blew through that resistance line and climbed all the way to the 200-day moving average.  It stopped there and is on the verge of a pullback, maybe.

 

RSI is at 68 and MACD is at 92, so the oscillators are signaling that the market is overbought.  Anything could happen, but I'm expecting a pullback, at least to about 4100 or so.  That would be close to a Fibonacci line, I think.

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert at this stuff, and you certainly shouldn't make any decisions based on what some guy posts on a blog.  This is for entertainment purposes only.

Coupons are back

Some months ago, Harbor Freight decided to do away with their popular coupons.  I was disappointed.

Recently, though, they seem to have had a change of heart.  Coupons are back!  :D

I don't often buy stuff from Harbor Freight, but I do scour the online coupon database from time to time.  On occasion, I'll find a screaming deal that I just can't let pass me by.

I've bought a number of clamps from there.  You won't find more bang-for-your-buck anywhere else when it comes to clamps.  I especially like the Pittsburgh quick release bar clamps.

I think it's great they brought the coupons back, and I hope their little coupon-less experiment didn't lose them too much market share.

In a heartbeat

There's been a good bit of 1980s nostalgia in recent years.  I haven't watched Stranger Things yet, but I've been thinking about giving it a try mainly for the nostalgia.

It all makes me homesick, frankly.  I'm homesick for the decade of my youth.

We didn't have easy availability of music and video that we have now, but that made us appreciate what we did have all the more.  And it left plenty of time for playing outside.  I used to ride my bike all over the place.  Now I haven't even sat on a bike in years.

Anonymity was the default state.  Whatever you did, you could be confident that no one was going to film you doing it.  This enabled mischief, but it also enabled the learning of valuable lessons.  It enabled liberty and growth and the accruing of wisdom.  We learned about living by doing.  Now the Eye of Sauron is everywhere, and we're all scuttling fearfully through our lives like goblins.

If I could go back to the 1980s, I'd do it in a heartbeat, man.  In a heartbeat.

Gaps got filled

I mentioned a little more than a month ago that gaps on stock charts tend to want to be filled.  It's one of many old sayings among stock traders.  As old sayings tend to go, they're not right all the time, but they're right often enough for people to notice the pattern.

The broader market did indeed rally to fill those gaps, just as I suspected it might.

 

It looks like there's some resistance around 4180 or so.  The MACD is on the high side and the two lines are beginning to converge, so I'd look for the market to begin a decline with the next couple of weeks.

It should be obvious to everyone by now, but I'll say it anyway: we're in a stagflationary environment, and we've been in one for some time.  We need a Paul Volcker, but we don't have one, so we'll be stuck here for a while.

Dragonflies abound

I've noticed that there are several dragonflies patrolling the yard now.  In the past, I've only ever seen one or two at a time.  Now I see three or more at a time.

I suppose the mosquito population has something to do with that.  Predators go where the prey are.

Whatever the reason, I'm glad to see them.  I hope they eat every last mosquito out there.

The things we see

I noticed something the other night.  I was lying in bed and looking at the ceiling, and I noticed an interesting shadow.  The light from the digital clock's display was causing the ceiling fan to cast a strange shadow on the ceiling.  It looked like the man-eating plant from Little Shop of Horrors.

I've had that clock for several months now.  The previous clock, an old one with a red LED display, stopped working, so I replaced it with one with a bigger, brighter blue-white display.  This was the first time, though--just this week--that I noticed the shadow it cast.

I could have seen that shadow at any time since getting the clock.  All I had to do was look up from my bed while the lights were off.  But I never did.  That shadow has been there these past few months, plainly visible, but I never saw it.

It makes me wonder how many other things like that we miss, things that are in plain sight that we pass by every day but somehow never notice.  Just how fully do we exist in this world anyway?  We're more like characters on a tv show, oblivious to the viewer and everything else in the room in which the television sits.  If we're missing things that are right under our noses, how can we be expected to find things that require a bit more work to reveal?

Next time you're lying in bed at night and getting ready to go to sleep, don't close your eyes just yet.  Take a minute or two to look around.  You might be surprised by what you find.

Some days are better than others

I've had a headache for the past two days.  It hasn't been severe, but it hasn't completely gone away, either, and longevity has a severity all its own.

The past couple of days have seen a lot of rain, too.  That's good.  June was hot and dry, and the ground baked, so we needed it.  The rain hasn't cooled things off much, though, and that's bad.  The high temp for tomorrow is supposed to be 93.

Dog days indeed.

Just did some rowing

The past two-and-a-half years have been tough for a lot of people, and I'm no exception.  For me, the ordeal began in late January/early February of 2020 when I developed an abscess in my big toe.  I was unable to wear a proper shoe on that foot for a while, so my freedoms of travel and exercise were restricted.  I was also scared of the possibility of the infection spreading and maybe having to amputate my foot or something.  It was quite distressing.

Then Covid happened, and the lockdowns, and so on and so forth.  At the same time, I was struggling with trying to find a dietary solution to my migraine issues.  I put on weight the past two years, had little energy, and spent a lot of time drowsy and perhaps even in a pre-diabetic state.

So I was dealing with many stressors at once, and I fell out of my exercise habits.

The past few months, though, have seen some improvement.  Not much, but enough to make me think there's some hope after all, that I'm not doomed to continue declining until I die of old age before I'm fifty.

Today, I did something I don't think I've done since before the pandemic.  I did some rowing exercises.

I don't have a rowing machine.  What I do have is an elastic exercise band with a door anchor.  I also have an audio file of the "rowing of the galley slaves" scene from Ben-hur, and I listen to that while rowing.  Moving my arms in time with the hortator's drumbeats from that scene is a heck of a workout.  

It was only a couple of minutes of exercise, but I'm feeling pretty blitzed right now.  It's a good feeling, though, and I'm glad I did it.  Hopefully this will be the start of a new habit.

That's the moral of the story: no matter how many times you fall out of an exercise habit, you can always start it up again.

Woodworking likes and dislikes

After doing some casual woodworking, I'm still very much a novice at it.  Frankly, I suck.  But I've learned what I like and don't like about it, so I thought I'd share.

I like chiseling.  This is my favorite woodworking thing to do.  When I'm chiseling out a mortise, it's sort of a zen thing.  I enjoy using the chisel for paring, too.  I could chisel all day, or at least until my aching back makes me quit.

I'm ambivalent about drilling and sawing.  Meh.

I really hate sanding.  Even when using a power tool like an orbital sander or sheet sander, sanding still sucks.  It's just the worst, man.

I haven't used my woodburning pen enough to know if I'll enjoy it or not.  Time will tell.  So far, though, using it has been awkward, and I'm not confident at all with it.  I need a lot more practice.

Gaps

There's an old saying on Wall Street: gaps want to be filled.

No, it's not sexual or anything like that.  It refers to when the market gaps up or gaps down.  The market then "wants" to trade within the space of the gap.

I bring this up because the market has gapped down recently, but there's no sign of the gaps being filled.

The market gapped down from June 9th to June 10th, and then again from the 10th to the 13th.  (The 11th and 12th were the weekend, so those days aren't on the chart.)  That's what a gap down is: white space between the bottom of one candlestick and the top of the next one.

I don't know what to make of this.  I know the Fed is driving the price action right now, but the 75-basis-point hike wasn't exactly a surprise, so one would expect the conventional wisdom--that the gap would be filled in a later trading session--to still be in play.

The only thing I know is that the ruble has strengthened against all major currencies and gold, so the ruble was the place to have your money these last few months.  Of course, the sanctions mean we Americans aren't allowed to invest in Russian stuff, so no gains for us.

We're obviously in bear market territory.  That's been the case for a while now.  The only question is where it will bottom out.  I fear we've got a ways to fall yet.

Interesting weapon

One of the weapons currently being used in the conflict in Ukraine is the VSS Vintorez.  It's an unusual thing.  It has a stock and a 7.9-inch barrel, so it would be classified as a short-barreled rifle here in the U.S.  It has a built-in suppressor and fires subsonic ammunition, so it's designed from the ground up to be quieter than the typical firearm.

The action and controls are similar to those of the AK.  It has iron sights and the usual-for-Russian-rifles left-side scope rail.

The round it fires is the 9x39, a 7.62x39 round necked up to accept a fatter and heavier bullet.  It's less like a rifle round and more like a magnum pistol cartridge with a spitzer bullet.

The overall length of the weapon is 35 inches, and the weight is under six pounds, so it's a handy little thing when worn on a sling.  It uses a ten-round or twenty-round detachable box magazine.

Personally, I think this would make an awesome home-defense gun, especially because of the built-in suppressor.

Anyway, it's a quirky and unusual weapon, but I think it's pretty cool.

Angles and Saxons

I recently googled the differences between Angles and Saxons.  We usually refer to both tribes in the same breath as "Anglo-Saxons," but they were separate groups, so there were presumably some differences, right?

Googling didn't help much, though.  The internet seems to think the two groups were basically identical.  And maybe they were.  I don't know.  I'm not a historian or an archaeologist.

What I did discover, though, was that the two tribes occupied different parts of continental Europe, though they were neighbors, and they settled different parts of Britain (though again ended up as neighbors).  Was one tribe chasing the other?  I don't know.  It's an interesting thought, though.  Maybe the Saxons found themselves squeezed between the Franks, Frisians, and Angles, so they got in their boats and headed for the frontier (which at the time was Britain, since the Romans had just pulled out, presumably leaving the place in some manner of disarray.)

We know the Angles and Saxons fought each other in Britain, so even if we don't view the two tribes as very different, they certainly felt otherwise.  

In modern England, there are definitely some cultural differences between East Anglia and southwestern England.  Do any of those differences have their roots in differences between Angles and Saxons?  If so, to what degree?  My guess is that most of those differences are the result of the Great Heathen Army establishing the Danelaw a few centuries later, but I don't actually know.

Anyway, it's an interesting topic.

KDP reports

Amazon's KDP is now defaulting to the new style of reporting.  It had been in Beta for a while, but I guess they've decided to make it the main workhorse now.

The old style of reporting is still available.

I hadn't tried the Beta version until they made it the default a few days ago.  My first impression was that it sucked and I hated it.  I couldn't see the stuff I wanted to see.

After a few days of playing with it, though, my feelings have moderated significantly.  I've figured out how to make the chart show me what I want to see.  Frankly, the new system isn't that bad.  I guess I'm not yet too old of a dog to learn new tricks.

Lucian's "True" Story

I recently came across the video below as a result of YouTube's recommendation engine.  It's about the ancient Greek writer Lucian and his crazy science fiction story.

It's just one more example of the "everything has been done before" truism.  If a science fiction writer thinks he's writing something completely original, then he simply hasn't read enough.  There are no new story ideas under the sun.  Your "original" idea has been done before, and it was probably done before the fall of the Roman Empire.

My advice: don't try to write an original story.  Just try to write a good story.  There's nothing wrong with doing a fresh take on an old idea.  And it's what you'd be doing whether you knew it or not, so you might as well reconcile yourself to the notion.

The Melian Dialogue

I read the Melian Dialogue for the first time today.  I'd heard the famous quote before--the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must--but I never realized where it was from.

Here's the entire dialogue for anyone who wants to read it.  It's not long.

https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/melian.htm

The context is the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta.  The Athenians want to capture the island of Melos in order to secure it as a safe harbor for their ships and deny it as a harbor for Sparta.  The Melians want to remain neutral.  The Athenians are much more powerful, though, and they mince no words about it.  The Melians can either submit or be destroyed.

The dialogue is interesting because the Athenians make an argument that is logical and rational but the Melians raise the possibility of divine intervention allowing them to win against the odds.  The Melians also believe the Spartans will come to their rescue out of blood kinship, and the Athenians think they're nuts to think that.

In the end, the Melians were conquered in what was basically a genocide, so their faith in the gods and Sparta didn't do them much good.  All it did was immortalize them in history as a warning to other weaker nations.

The Athenians and Spartans would also eventually be conquered by the Romans, and Greece has been little more than a European backwater ever since.  The real power on the continent shifted to Rome, then to Constantinople, and later to places like Spain, France, England, and so on.

Is there a moral to the story?  I don't know.  Neither the Athenians nor the Melians would fare well over the centuries following the war between the two.  If the Melians had had enough weapons to put up a decent fight, then perhaps they could have enforced their own neutrality.  As it was, they were basically sitting ducks, having outsourced their defense to others.  And if the Athenians had been a little less imperialist, then maybe they'd have had more resources left over for defense when the time came to face Rome.  I guess "don't outsource your own defense, and armed neutrality is the best policy" would be the takeaways here.

Anyway, it's an interesting dialogue.

Best time of year

The past couple of days have been beautiful.  Perfect temps, holly flowers blooming, bees buzzing all around, no rain, and mostly no wind.  Just wonderful.

The rest of this year might offer up a stock market collapse, a currency collapse, famine, and nuclear war, so I'm trying to savor these good days while I have the chance.

Remember the good days always, folks, for it is the doom of men that they forget...

Small alterations

In recent months, I've become concerned about my increasing weight.  I have since made some small alterations in my diet.  I think they're working, too.

I swear my forties have been nothing but one physical ailment after another.  But I am fighting, and I am overcoming these problems.  It's slow going, but I'm making progress.

My main challenge right now is psychological.  Caffeine helps in that regard.  So does music.

And on that note, if you need a pick-me-up, you can hardly do better than some Stan Bush.

 

 

Tornado season is here

No problems in my neck of the woods, fortunately.  Two days of rain and a lot of lightning, but not much wind, so that's good.

Folks in Middle Georgia got hit hard, though.  If any of y'all are reading this, I hope you're okay.

The Masters is looking to be chilly and windy, so the golfer who wins might just be the one who adapts to the conditions the best rather than the one who can play the course the best in less turbulent weather.

In other news, my taxes are done, and I got some outdoor chores done before the rain came, so I'm feeling pretty good about all that.  Now if only I could finish the woodworking project that's been driving me batty...

I think spring is here to stay

I hope I didn't just jinx it with that blog post title.  lol

Looking forward to my favorite flowers blooming.  Looking forward to not being cold.

I'm going to make an effort this year to get more sun exposure on my skin.  I was deficient in this the last couple of years.  The whole Covid thing made me a hermit.  I've got to break out of that.

I hope you all have a nice spring.

Sometimes the little guy wins

A credit card dispute was recently resolved in my favor.  My opponent was a huge company with a lot more power and influence than I'll ever have.

The monetary amount wasn't very big, though I still wanted my money back.  The principle of the matter, though, is what was really getting under my skin.  And now justice has been done.

It feels good to get this win.  :D

I'm back, and I'm not sick

I went out of state this past weekend.  The last time I went out of state, I came home with a sinus infection and was sick for two weeks.  This time, no sinus infection.  I'm quite pleased about that.

It's been difficult for me to focus on things.  Too many distractions.  My sleep habits have been topsy-turvy.  I really hope things settle into a rhythm soon.

There was a cold snap this past weekend, and it killed off some of the flowers.  The rest of this week, though, is supposed to be above freezing, so hopefully spring is on the way.  It's currently 55 and raining.

I realized today that I haven't seen as many pigeons as usual in recent months.  Then I remembered that a hawk had taken up residence in the area, and I put two and two together.

Tomorrow's St. Patrick's Day, and that means lots of drunk people out and about, so y'all be careful out there.

Sawing dovetails is easy

It's sawing them so that they fit together cleanly that's tough.  For me, it's basically impossible.  I'm a terrible woodworker.

The good news is that I'm building something for my niece, and she's only nine years old, so maybe she's still young enough so that she'll be grateful for the item anyway and not dwell on its imperfections.

In other news, my parents are getting better.  They're still a little sick, but only in a minor way.  They should be back to normal soon.  This is their second bout with Covid-19, and this one came after both had been double-vaxxed.

The weather's going to be nice this week.  That will suck if we get nuked; rain washes fallout away, and a lack of rain will allow it to linger.  But at least this stuff is happening in March rather than July so we don't have to try to survive without air conditioning.

I've been imagining a dystopia story for a while now.  I've made some notes and am slowly letting it gel in my head.  Are people interested in reading dystopias at times like this?  I honestly don't know.  But "bad timing" is the story of my life, and I've never been able to avoid it, so I might as well just do what I want and let the chips fall where they may.

Update

Well, a few things have happened since I last blogged.

The most important of those things is my aunt dying.  She lived in another state, so plans are being made to attend her service.  It sucks to lose her, but it will also be good to see the extended family and mourn with them in person.

I actually didn't watch any Olympic events at all.  Just the Opening Ceremony.  I had meant to see more of it; I just didn't get around to doing it.  After reading about it, though, I'm glad I missed it.  Between the food and the rules and the disqualifications and the industrial settings at the events, it sounds like it was quite the dystopian experience.

My parents are sick.  Dad has Covid, confirmed by home test kit.  Mom didn't test herself, but we're assuming she has it, too.  They've been sick for several days now without getting worse, so I'm pretty sure they're not in danger of dying from it.  For most folks, having Covid is no worse than having the flu, and that's been the case for me and my family.  (My parents and I all had it a year ago; I think we picked it up at the extended family Christmas get-together.)

If the American and Russian governments manage to get themselves into a war, and it ends up going nuclear, then I won't be incinerated.  I live too far from a target.  I am, however, directly downwind of a number of targets, so fallout will be an issue for a couple of weeks or so.  The good news is that I live in a humid climate, which means frequent rains, and rain washes that crap away.  So don't fret too much for me.  I can hole up and live off Campbell's soup until it's safe to go outside.  If the zombies attack, I'll try to get some video of them when I'm not busy shooting them.

The daffodils are in full bloom, and the maple trees are blooming.  Another five or six weeks and then the holly and tulip poplars should flower.  Spring is on the way.  Looking forward to it.

D2D is acquiring Smashwords

This means that, some time in March, I'll be adding my books to the Smashwords store without having to make a separate account.  I'm excited about this.

My only fear is that some of Smashwords's bad habits trickle over into D2D.  Let's hope that doesn't happen.

For the record, I appreciate the heck out of Mark Coker for being the trailblazer that he was, and I wish him all the best.

Olympic Opening Ceremony today

Don't miss it.  :D

ETA:  Okay, I was a bit let down.  These things are starting to rely too much on the cgi stuff rather than actual people and props on the stadium floor.  Also, the material was pretty bland and perhaps even pandering at times.

It's starting to seem that, no matter where the Games take place, the ceremonies look like they were all designed by the same people.  And that's a problem.  It takes away from the distinctiveness of the location.

Anyway, good luck to the athletes.

My browser's weather addon is lying to me

It says the wind is currently 7 mph.  That's a bunch of bunk.  The wind has been beating at the window all night.  It's amazing that the power hasn't gone out.

Cold and windy and dry... man, I hate winter.

In happier news, I finished a minor woodworking project.  I made a case for my Forstner bits.  It's crude, but it works.

Back in the saddle, sort of

I've cranked out over a thousand words so far tonight.  That's the good news.

The bad news is that it's a new draft, so I'm not any closer to finishing book 5 of Wheel of Fire.

Sometimes, though, you have to write the words that are working for you at the moment rather than try to force the words that aren't working for you.

Anyway, I've been productive, so yay for me.

I've seen this movie, I think

I'm pretty sure this is how the zombie apocalypse starts.  Or is it the great plague that wipes us all out?  Not sure.

 

Trailer crash monkey story, now with more sick lady

 

I mean, are we in Night of the Living Dead territory here, or is it more like Outbreak?

Freakin' monkeys, man.  *smh*

His name was Marvin Lee Aday

The great, legendary, and irreplaceable Meat Loaf has passed away.  He was 74.

https://www.facebook.com/MeatLoaf/posts/483327946483936

The best way to honor a fallen rock star is to keep his music alive, so let's listen to some tunes and remember him.

R.I.P., Meat Loaf.  :(

Tonga volcano and tsunami

 This just happened a little while ago.  :o

That's actual time-lapse satellite imagery of the eruption.  Notice the pressure wave.

I don't how strong or destructive this eruption is, or the tsunami, but hopefully the Tongans will pull through with a minimum of casualties.

Looks like 2022 is trying to get off to a roaring start.

And we're off

Just booked my first promo of the year.

It's weird.  It feels like I'm starting anew after having taken a vacation to another planet or something.  That's how surreal these past couple of years have been for me.

I also weighed myself today, and I'm heavy as I've ever been in my life.  I've got to slim down.  My weight is actually less--significantly less--than the American male average, but it's still too much for a man of my slim, long-legged frame.  I intend to do something about this.  Wish me luck.

Merry New Year!

So 2021 is thankfully gone, but not before taking Betty White away from us on the VERY LAST DAY of the year.  And just days before her hundredth birthday, too.  That's some real spite, folks.  Oh, and there was a tornado warning around here later that same day.  Just dandy.  (I'm fine, though; thanks for asking.)

On the positive side, my new mouse has arrived from Amazon.  The old one wasn't clicking very reliably, so it was time to get a new one.  I think it was five years old.  Anyway, it was a fine mouse until it got old and the contacts got imprecise, so I replaced it with the exact same model, a corded Amazon Basics version.  Eight bucks and change, and now I'm clicking like a boss, at least for the next five years or so.

It was unseasonably warm the past several days, but now winter is returning.  There's a bunch of wind right now, and there's some blue stuff (freezing rain?) heading this way on the Doppler radar.  That's good, though, because warm winter temperatures are a good way to have a false spring, and then a late freeze kills all the flowers, and that just sucks.  I like spring flowers, dadgummit.

I'm really hoping that my body cooperates with me this year.  I'd love to get in better shape, and I'd love to have enough energy to actually do a good bit of writing.  Its been nearly two years since I last published, and that's just not acceptable.

In the meantime, I hope you, dear reader, had a nice holiday season, and I hope you have a great 2022, assuming events beyond our control don't interfere like they have for the past two years.

Merry New Year!  :D