third world county

No, seriously. Absolutely NO thought seems to have been put into this ad for the Hyundai IX35 hydrogen fuel cell powered car:

“Edgy” huh? #dumbassery

Well, not all that many, but. . .

I keep forgetting to return library books. Now that a majority of the books I read are eBooks, it’s just a pain to have to get in the car, schlep six miles and mosey on back.

Reading too many different books at the same time. No, not simultaneously. I’m not that fantastic. *heh* But a several open and “in process” on one computer (in browser, in Kindle app), another on my Kindle Fire and maybe another one or two on one or more other computers on top of a hardcopy book or two sometimes becomes a bit cumbersome. *meh* It’s a problem I can live with.

Buying too many books. Yeh, yeh, that bundle of seven eArcs is tempting. OK, bought. Free books? I’m in. What? Amazon’s running a deal with a few hundred eBooks at “up to 85% off”? Sign me up for the marathon shopping spree.

It’s too easy to buy more books. Too easy. What? I’m complaining? *heh*

I have no reason for this post, except that I find the word “onomatopoeia” to be intrinsically ironic.

. . .that politics have been (mostly) absent around twc for the last short bit? Yeh. Even evil gets a bit boring after a while when all it does is repeat itself: Lies, Damned Lies, MORE Damned Lies and yet MORE. . . with no evidence of any creativity or even the scantest attempt to make the lies anything but blatant, bald-faced yawners.

*shrugs* Maybe that’s the plan, make evil so yawningly, terminally boring that there’s just nothing left to say about it.

Anywho, at least I can watch yet another episode of Poirot via Amazon Instant Video. I never tire of the saxophone in the theme music, and the acting, settings, costuming, dialog and even, to some degree, the fairly predictable Agatha Cristie plots, are all just wonderfully enjoyable. And, of course, the incidental music–quite apart from the theme music–is extremely enjoyable.

There’s that, at least, when all the rest of the world has gone mad, mad, I say. . . *heh*

I have already been able to start harvesting an early crop of. . . dandelions. I’ve not yet harvested much of the crop, as I wanted to let ‘em go to seed and spread the wealth a bit first. (Second crop should yield some nice, tasty flowers.) So far, I only have a goodly mess of greens and enough dandelion root to make a couple of pots of dandelion infusion, after a roast and grind. The greens are washed, ready to pat dry and freeze in a vacuum pack. The roots are cleaned and ready to roast this evening.

Looking forward to some good eats. A few plants harvested daily should keep me in dandelion “tea” and greens for a while, and as those I expect to sprout from seed come on, I ought to be able to make it through the rest of Spring and at least some of Summer with a bounteous dandelion feast. . . if my Good Neighbor doesn’t take it into his head to mow my lawn as he’s out playing with his riding mower (he’s done that once this Spring–oh well *heh*)

Several years ago, back in the olden days of the rough edges of wireless printing, I purchased a “Wireless Upgrade Kit” from HP that. . . sucked. Not only would the software not properly install on an OS it was supposedly designed for without sprinkles of small animal entrails and a vigorous application of a chicken bone rattle, when the software installed, the thing didn’t work. No, not “didn’t work well” just “didn’t work”.

I could’ve returned the thing, I suppose, but the PC end of the thing did work as a USB wireless adapter. . . in Linux, though, not in Windows. *shrugs* Fo gigure.

Fast forward several years (urm, 7 or so?). I ran across this thing while leaning out old techie junk and thought to myself, “Self, why not see if HP has finally made some workarounds or new software or whatever available?” I didn’t hold out much hope. After all, I had purchased an HP “wireless network capable” printer in the time since I had had such a wonderful experience with HP’s wireless printer upgrade kit (yeh, yeh: sucker), and it worked soooo well. Not. Decent printing, just could NOT hang onto a network connection. Period. But what can I say? I had low expectations but high hopes. *heh*

After an hour of messing with the thing. . . it worked! Color me bumfuzzled. . .

Now a down version of the wireless HP printer (exactly same AIO printer but w/o the crappy wireless “feature”) in the other room is connecting wirelessly to at least one lil notebook. Now I need (for values of “need” that include “Oh, heck that’d be cool” *heh*) to see about getting the other three computers in this room to also connect to it. If that works, then the several computers downstairs can be connected as well. Since I’m more or less off and today’s “small projects day” (in lieu of actually heading outside to do Big Projects Day ), that sounds like a plan.

Another “notarecipe”. Snack or meal: you decide.

Quick sorta pizza. Take a pita round (or two or three or whatever). Add your fav pasta/pizza sauce and toppings (meat, veggies, cheeses). Bake. Add sides as you wish to make a meal or just have one as a snack.

I do a similar thing with corn tortillas as well. Different textures and flavors but still enjoyable.

So, we received a notice from our local “baling wire and chewing gum” POTS carrier. In June, the basic residential phone charge will increase by 40%. Yep. 40%. Of course, that’s accompanied by the elimination of a service that has cost that same amount to have added on (which is why we never added it on), but–mirabile dictu!–the add-onservice that is being eliminated is now included in ALL customers’ basic phone charges.

In other words, the company has decided that everyone needs to pay that added charge, so they are simply adding the “service” to everyone’s account and charging every customer, instead of just the smaller number who wanted it before.

Of course the local “baling wire and chewing gum” phone company has to do this if the owners want to maintain their standard of living, since more and more folks in the area have ditched ‘em for cell phone only services. In fact, we may just do the same, given this high-handed scam.

Just re-sampled (not really re-reading it, just skimming a bit and recalling having read it as a lad) a classic Andre Norton and ran across,

“Nick could not tell whether it was singing or music. . . “

*groan* See Inigo Montoya. I do not think those words mean what she thinks they mean. Not all music is singing, but all singing (though not all that is called singing, especially nowadays) is music.*sigh*

The problem with most folks and passwords is that not only do their chosen passwords suck dead bunnies through a straw and that folks typically overuse the same password and even keep their password(s) written down on post-it notes and suchlike, but most folks also NEVER CHANGE THEIR PASSWORDS!

*sigh* Rookie mistake.

I try to rotate/change passwords on an irregular basis. I’ll just feel like changing all, most or some of ‘em and do it. Here’s the result of running one of my email passwords (only 32 characters, but still not all that bad) through Steve Gibson’s “haystack” password checker:

[Just click on the image to pop it up.]