Category Archives: rambling

tequila

The picture of the tanker truck: so many times I have wished the liquor store had a larger size!

The picture of the agave fields: we were way out from everything and there was 4G LTE out there.

9 July 2015, Brian and I took a day tour from Guadalajara to the city of Tequila, Jalisco, Mexico.

We toured a Cuervo historical factory and were treated to some complimentary samples.

I ❤️ Mexico with all my heart.

microsoft authenticator

Play Store is recommending this one for me. Nah.

I guess it’s better than not having an authenticator but not my first pick.

I guess it doesn’t really matter when the entire device is a data mine.

retro sega

Sega Genesis Mini.

Bought myself a little treat at Target. Half price until midnight night before last. I ordered it at 11 p.m. to get the sale price and picked it up next day.

It’s nicer than I thought it would be. I plugged it in, turned it on, and two hours went by in a blink.

vinyl LP’s at target

Vinyl records (LP’s) at Target. Whoda thunk it.

I would doubt the quality, but the jacket says “remastered. heavyweight vinyl”, so maybe they are OK.

A well-cared-for vinyl LP played on quality equipment had phenomenal sound when mastered correctly. When CD’s started increasing in popularity, I think that the quality of the vinyl records was reduced, and/or the sound was mastered for CD but pressed onto vinyl. The result was that for the last few years, LP’s weren’t worth buying. Companies wanted to sell the CD’s anyway.

the process

“let’s get them into office then we’ll hold their feet to the fire”

You aren’t getting anywhere near those feet.

“if [insert name] gets into office, I’ll resist with every fiber of my being”

Translation: I will begin to use ALL CAPS on social media and increase the profanity.

1980

1980 was the first US Presidential election in which I was old enough to vote.

That was a bad time in my life, and honest to God (or to whatever), I can’t remember what I did. BFD, really.

Also 1980, April, I remember waking up one morning, and President Carter was on the TV real early not sounding good. I remember thinking, “oh fuck, what is it now?” It was Operation Eagle Claw.

Summer 1980, I went to Guadalajara, Mexico for the first time. That was a good thing that changed my life.

the news

A mini timeline on getting the news, also to do with growing up.

In my teens and 20’s, I used to read the New York Times and felt that I was “reading up” and being well informed. At least one can hopefully learn about propaganda by reading it, though in my teens, I think I mostly took it at face value. Now I see it as the sickest shit in the world.

I liked my shortwave radio.

Late 70’s, I found Mother Jones when it was starting out. It was pretty good for awhile. I dropped it in the late 90’s when all they could write about was Newt Gingrich for four years solid. By 2016, it was the most status quo clickbait factory in the world and Kevin Drum can go to hell.

I liked Democracy Now! for a long time, but now it’s blown away into la-la land for me.

These days I have to put it together by reading lots of small outlets. I tend to follow journalists by name rather than by organizations. There are a few websites that aggregate well and can sometimes pay for original work.

It’s a piece of work.

firefox pride themes

Firefox has Pride themes.

These are sweet. I don’t use themes, though. I must have a flat grey/black/white colorless desktop browser. If I used themes, I’d use one of these.

At the bottom of the page, there are backgrounds for Zoom and things.

https://blog.mozilla.org/firefox/pride-browser-themes-for-firefox/

2020 Kirkwood Independence Day Parade

Here is the 2020 Kirkwood Independence Day Parade. The parade participants outnumbered the spectators. It seems to lean Republican, usually not this much, but this is a “special” year. You can assess the candidates all by yourself.

The White House cap is a decoy. 😁

Bottles of hand sanitizer were being handed out, which we were pleased to get. The bottle has that “lube” shape. Can I get ya a popper to go with it? 🎉

stars and stripes forever

If you want some Stars and Stripes Forever, here is one recorded in Ireland and released today. Brian knows one of the performers.

I used to enjoy playing this in jr. high and high-school band. By high school, I was playing mostly bass clarinet. This piece was upper register for it. It made the instrument sing and feel good in the hands.