Let There Be (More) Light

Daylight Savings Time begins today, and for people like me, project oriented, yet nocturnal, it means another hour to work in the garage.   At least, that's the plan.  I got myself a new toy, and I'm hoping that having spent money on a scroll saw will inspire me to acually get out and use it.  I have a few projects in mind to do as soon as the weather is consistently warmer.  The biggest obstacles of course are Facebook and general failures of time management.
    I'm spending this weekend at home in front of the computer with a massive head cold.  I feel like I've got a baseball sized glob of Jello behind my eyes and nose, and my OTC medicines are having mixed results.  I've stayed home from work on both Friday and Saturday night, which has cost me a bundle of money.  I haven't even been able to use the time off productively because sometimes it's an effort to hold up my head.
    So, I've spent a lot of time either in bed, in front of the computer watching movies and shows on Hulu, or reading on my Nook.  Gaby fixed some homemade chicken soup this evening,which was very good, and we ordered pizza last night.  I keep thinking of things I could be doing, but my energy level is so low, I don't even want to try.

I'm so bored. 

Maybe I'll try to force myself to do something when it's time for the next pill.

If It's On The Internet...

The story as it appeared on Facebook:

The story as it appeared in a Libyan English language newspaper on October 19, 2011:

Verdict: Uncle Sam's Misguided Children is not a reliable source of news.

To Get and Get Not

Our annual holiday celebration was a few days later than normal this year.  Normally, we celebrate during the week following Christmas, but this year it was the week following New Year's Day.
   I was looking forward to seeing my brother this year.  He's had an eventful year, but as far as I can remember we actually haven't talked to each other since last January, a few days after his last visit.  He hasn't even been on Facebook much, so what I do know about his year has been through the parents.  In visits past, we've been able to steal away for some time together, just the two of us, but this year (and last year, too) our available time has been minimal.  This visit was essentially only three days long, and he had brought his job with him, and other family members had agendas that kept me busy as well.
   My Dad was the one having the worst time.  He felt like he was just hemorrhaging money, and things kept going wrong for him.  We went out to dinner at Outback, only the third time since they opened in the late 80s, and it was our third bad experience.  My Dad got a steak that was so gristly that he couldn't cut through it, and the one they replaced it with was cooked rare (he likes his well done), and then he lost his credit card.  He thinks he left it in the waiter's ticket book, but he called the restaurant the next day and they said they didn't have it. 
   Thursday the 3rd we opened presents, and after a couple years of saying he didn't need or want anything, my Dad got what he asked for.  He was disappointed.  Turns out that that wasn't what he wanted at all.  (I actually hadn't finished shopping yet, so he got my present later.) Then a hot water tank quit working at one of the rent houses, which kept him away part of the time.  He's had funner years.
    Though I didn't get to spend time with Scott, I did spend a lot of time with his daughter.  Now that she's outgrown the hormonal grumpiness of early adolescence, she's really a lot of fun.  She and her cousins insisted that I drive them to the mall, first to finish their Christmas shopping, and then to spend the money they found under the tree.  I spent a bit of time talking to her, and I feel like I got to make friends with her all over again.  Honestly, I think that that was the best part of my Christmas.

Having Their Say

Just some cathartic things my friends have posted on Facebook in the past few days.

Luz

I got an idea.  And it seems to be working.

I've started Facebooking my Spanish lesson.  Now I'm getting feedback from my husband and some of his friends, which is something I've wanted all along.

Specifically, the plan is to post my new vocabulary words with all of the phrases that my (many) Spanish dictionaries include in the entry for that word.  These phrases come from many Spanish speaking countries, but my husband and our friends are primarily from Mexico, so the plan is that they will tell me which of them are words and phrases that they use, and which ones I should discard.

Next, the exercises will be posted on Facebook, and they can make all the necessary corrections.  If I have any questions, these can also be posted on Facebook.

The only gap in the plan is the audio.  I need to figure out how to be able to hear and play back Gaby's voice saying the things I'm learning.

I'll get back to you if I figure it out.

Brainwaves.

This is probably a mistake.
I can't sleep, and I have so much I want to do today.  Four or five more hours would be perfect, but my mind is going and going, and I can't shut it off.
I worked last night (Saturday night), and then had to get up after only three and a half hours of sleep to go to a bellman's meeting (which I was late for and missed most of.)  When I came home the coffee was still doing its job, so I didn't go right back to bed.  Sitting in front of the computer, I decided that if I stayed up all day I could get up earlier tomorrow and have a lot more useful hours in my day.  But I was so tired, and while Gaby hung the Christmas lights and put up the tree, I was a slug and did hardly anything at all.  The house looks great, but my contribution was minimal.
My Mom called sometime during the evening and asked me if I was available for dinner tomorrow night, and I said yes.  I haven't had a date with Mom since Mother's day last year, so I'm looking forward to it.
After dinner I went to bed expecting/hoping to sleep eight hours or more, but I woke up after about four hours with a headache.  I got up and took some aspirin, but, while I was laying in bed waiting for it to kick in, my mind started going.  Normally, I use the big book of crossword puzzles next to the bed to make my mind shut off so I can sleep.  It's become my bedtime ritual, and it works really well.  But turning on the light would disturb Gaby, so not now.  So I'm thinking.
...is this because I mentioned that I have several financial obligations coming up at once?...
...the Supreme court is supposed to be deciding which cases they'll hear on the DOMA on the 30th...
...why is he calling himself a conservative when he's obviously a movement consevative...
...but there's no way Erector sets are going to be able to compete with birds and orchids...
...I keep checking, but so far he hasn't posted anything at all...
...I already found his; I just need to buy it, wrap it and stick it under the tree.  Hers I may need to order, but I want to shop around first...
...well, they haven't had a case so far, and every time it's gone to court they've called it unconstitutional...
...once in a while, I think about having a garage sale and just putting everything we own up for sale...
...it's not just the money; it's the time.  This is where being nocturnal sucks...
...truth is I just waste too much time...
...except for the books.  Getting rid of them would be hard...
...the painting is taking way too long.  There's something about the way I'm going about it that's not working...
...it would change everything.  He could get a job...
...I know I'm not out to his relatives, but I'm not sure about his friends, and now that he's on Facebook...
...the couple in this show were so much like us, but their attitudes toward each other were so different from ours.  But still, I could totally identify with the one with the job...
...I really don't see a difference between filtering an understanding of a national policy through a foreign culture is any different from filtering it through FOX...
...don't forget to call Greg...
...it'll be time to start new drawings for the spring shows in a month.  I think I should do a few small to medium sized ones...
...surfing turned out to be a metaphor for orchids...
...Fauxcahontis?  Is that a thing?..
...it's a fear of failure thing.  I've got it too...
...go to sleep go to sleep go to sleep...

Innumeracy

As a person who gets most of his news from writers who specialize in one subject, I can sometimes miss stories about other things that are going on in the world.  Fortunately, I have news junkie Facebook friends who can fill in some of the blanks.  Sometimes the stories seem interesting enough to merit further research, and sometimes the results of that research can be entertaining.  Like this one from one of my Fair and Balanced friends:



I clicked on the article in question and found that Republican candidate, and Tea Party Favorite, Allen West was wanting a recount of votes in St Lucie County, FL because 141% of the registered voters in the county had voted in the election.  In fact, all precincts in the county had extraordinary voter turnout; between 113% and 158.85%.  Massive voter fraud, right?  I decided to check it out.

    I found several articles that explained what was going on, but one from freerepublic.com put it in chart form.  There are 175,554 registered voters in St Lucie County.  Voting was done on a two card ballot.  Both cards were two sided giving voters the opportunity to vote for candidates for public office on card 1 and 11 Constitutional ballot initiatives on card 2.  So the ratio of ballot cards to voters was 2:1.  If every registered voter had come to vote, and had used both cards, the relative number of ballots cast would have been 200% of the number of registerd voters.

    But everybody did not show up to vote.  Out of 175,554 registered voters, only 124,031 voters actually showed up.  That's 70.7%.  At a ratio of 2:1, that leaves the possibility of 248,062 ballot card being cast.  But some voters (249 of them) did not use both cards, which resulted in only 247,713 ballot cards being cast, which was 141.1% of the number of registered voters.  Other little details left the final tally of votes cast at  123,591.

    As you can see, I wrote this all out in short form above, believeing that a clear presentation of facts and data should lead to a logical conclusion.  I was ignored.

    Now, I don't know if Watchdog Wire originated this conspiracy theory, but it's astonishing to me that they didn't check the numbers before publishing it.  It got even worse further down in the article when they wrote, "Does each ballot consist of two cards? If yes, then there would be two times the number of cards as votes cast or in the case of St. Lucie County 175,554 times 2 there would be an expected 351,108 cards (two page ballots) cast.  However, according to the SOE there were 247,713 or 141.10% of cards cast. A valid question is what happened to the other 58.9% of cards cast?"

 

     *facepalm*

Anyway, the news today is that Allen West got his recount, and his opponent, Patrick Murphy, gained 242 votes after the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections completed its re-tabulation, increasing his lead to more than 2,100 votes over West.

Not a word from my Fair and Balanced friends.