One of the advantages of a healthy existence? You can go on a little binge every now and again. This is a Burger King spread for $2.54, that’s decaf. This was y’day but my budget would allow me something like this every day if I felt like it. Normally, I go to BK twice per week, same as when we had the computer store.
(You can usually tell I’m returning from a successful foray to the library when you see a caramel sundae on the left. Due to the high quality of the food, I consider BK as I would any other restaurant and will go there for coffee or take a book to read.)
An entire day at home, reading and tinkering. Sort of like being married but without the constant crabbing? I was programming and I like to take intermittent breaks when the going is tough, to clear the baffles. Who remembers Knight Rider? I don’t, because I’ve never bothered to watch it, but I do know the lights on the front of the car swept back and forth, and I was trying to duplicate that effect.
Not so easy at all. In my mind’s eye, I see the lights not just coursing back and forth, but that the next light begins to brighten while the previous one is still fading out. Even if that is not accurate, I still want to program a series of LEDs to do that. I also see those glasses for the blind guy on Star Trek. That pattern of LEDs sweeping back and forth. Absolutely nothing I tried worked.
I’m stocked up on contemporary articles on most subjects, finding that newspapers are no longer an adequate source of information about scientific advancement. One requires educated reporters to carry that off and that creates a paradox. I see they’ve done a full face transplant, nothing less than amazing. I have completed a few chapters of “Microbe Hunters” but that book is heavy, slow going. I doubly admire these early pioneers as they had the additional chore of fighting off religious fanatics.
That is another reason I would like evidence of other life to be found in my lifetime. It is not just a matter of an alien bug, but it completely shows every last religion to be total bullshit and that is that. No, there will be no room for apologies or recanting. I notice many churches are playing it safe by issuing statements that extraterrestrial life wouldn’t be inconsistent with their doctrines, but that doesn’t fool anyone with half a brain. The tiniest smidgen of life from outer space blows all religion out of the water.
There will be those who continue to “believe” after that, of course, but they will loose the blanket defense of calling everyone who proves them wrong a non-believer. Don’t get me wrong, I’m okay with religion, but I’m not okay with how many people use religion as an excuse for bad behavior. Burning people alive is bad behavior. My stance is that nothing that happens in Nature just once. If it happens once, it has happened before and it will happen again somewhere in the universe. That includes the evolution of life on a watery planet.
I suppose I should have gone out tonight. Maybe find a little lady to evolve with but Fridays have been non-productive in that department for the past ten years. I know that my best day of the week for meeting women is always a Thursday, I’ve dated (depending on the criteria) approximately 34 women I’ve met on that day. Worst days are Mondays because my score for that day is zero. Yep, in my whole life, never on a Monday.
The weeds are around half gone. That was my only venture into the sunlight today, which is about as exciting as things get at 104F. I again have a corner unit that allows a cross-breeze through the entire building, so with a couple of electric fans, I can relax in the shade. By sheer coincidence, this place has the same dimensions as those retirement cottages Wallace and I looked at in Everglades City. Except I have a big shed, a driveway, a nice back yard and no neighbors half the year. It also compares well with the cabins many of my co-workers eventually retired to in the Pacific Northwest.
It’s when I buy a porch swing that you have to get worried. Blog rules say I have to report the new computer system. I had a devil of a time getting the Arduino IDE to find the correct port for my card driver. This is supposed to be automatic, so there were no directions or troubleshooting guidelines when it failed. Worse, it is not a Windows-based program so there is nobody to ask for help. Eventually I got it.
Speaking of non-Windows code, I’ve got a new 40 step process to crack router codes. This is not illegal and I love to do it for the intellectual challenge. My process works because people leave their wireless routers on when they enter encryption keys. But forget those split second hacks you see on TV. In real life, each instance requires around two hours of truly intense brain focus. And my brain has other things to do these days.
