Maybe it’s time to go to the repair shop (for my missing crema). We’ve spent a week with watery, flat tasting coffee. Not the espresso we’ve learned to need love. The answer to my question hasn’t come up on the net, and my quick visit to the dealer today only reaffirmed that things are serious here in Mudville.
posted in technology | Comments Off on Inside the goo collector | 303 words
There’s a very popular talk show on local TV called Tout Le Monde En Parle which translates roughly as “Everybody’s Talking About It”. Great show, where guests from across the public spectrum are interviewed in a non-confrontational setting in front of a studio audience and the province at large. After all, what else is there to do on the average Sunday evening?
posted in politics | Comments Off on Everybody talking about it is not always a good thing | 279 words
Among my wishlist items for today is the tweak needed to make eBay show me the cost of stuff in real terms. I’m not bad at mental math, but given that payments for all the stuff I want to buy must pass via Paypal (which is the hind quarter of the auction world), why can’t the display show me the different values in “converted” terms? I want to know the vig. Don’t pretend it isn’t possible, this is a computer.
posted in economy | Comments Off on Show me the money in terms I understand | 280 words
Now we have proof that (some) movies are teaching (some) young people to do the wrong thing. Those pesky pirates from Somalia have managed to comandeer a supertanker using small boats and people waving the modern equivalent of a broadsword. All this because someone allowed a pirated illegally downloaded DVD of Jack Swallow into the local market, I guess.
posted in economy | Comments Off on Comparing pirates | 268 words
There are larger worries in the world, but right now the primary one in my near circle is that the crema is missing. I’ve decalcified and degreased and tested and rejected (a half jar of ground beans), but the answer is not clear. What will we do if the machine has developed a mechanical flaw?
posted in food, ham radio | Comments Off on Foam, football and another antenna | 258 words
When the alarm went off this morning, for the second time, little did I think that within the hour I would be shot in both arms. Dangerous living? Not so much. In the ongoing battle to avoid seasonal illness, my reservation had been made weeks ago to meet with a local doctor and discuss my options. Seeing your doctor on a regular basis is important. If you don’t appear at least once every five years on the rolls, the clinic assumes you are deceased, (or worse, moved away) and your place is given to other waiting members of our socialized medicine regime.
posted in health | Comments Off on After getting shot in both arms | 356 words
Whatever else might be going on in the world, this evening brought clement weather for my long bus ride home after supervising government, and the price of our favourite petroleum product has rolled back by another penny, to $0.88/litre. It’s not important that my transit bus is independent of such prevarication in marketing. I just like the thought that even fossil fuel prices don’t have to go up and up and away.
posted in technology | Comments Off on Flashing lights and fire trucks | 255 words
My kids laugh at me, because I’ve got the music in me. Put on headphones, some tunes, and the groove oozes from between my joints. Maybe it’s time for a visit to one of their places, where people slam or skank or whatever it is that they do; I can laugh louder and longer. For now, I’m just going to listen to Bob Sinclar and let the rhythm take me.
posted in computing, economy, education | Comments Off on Tunes, snow and an improved game world | 283 words
We’ve come a long way since the time of Marconi. I’ve been known to risk RF burns for about three decades now, and I grew up with the clicks of telegraph sounders, so fist-powered communication is nothing new. My own children have heard CW, without ever understanding “what” was being said spelled out in plain language. This evening, though, I showed a “bug” to one of the frequent visitors and sent a simple ID. His reaction: “Cool! It’s like scratch“. I’m officially from a far distant place and time.
posted in ham radio | Comments Off on New old toys | 294 words
While flipping through the channels this evening, one program gave me pause. What would life be like if I couldn’t go to the cupboard and pull out what I needed for supper? What if my food preparation really was a start to finish profile, where I had to catch my food before sitting down to savour?
posted in environment | Comments Off on Strayed far from the woodland | 282 words
