Read in 2023

A lot of good reading this year. Not nearly as much as I'd like to do, but that's the breaks. First on the Moon by Rod Pyle was probably my favorite read this year as I've always been intrigued by the Apollo era. W don't seem to do things like that as a country anymore, there's too much political infighting, and that's significant, considering the Apollo era wasn't exactly quiescent, politics-wise.

1066 and all That, by W.C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman. 116 pages.

Assassination Vacation, by Sarah Vowell. 259 pages.

Citizen Soldiers, by Stephen Ambrose. 476 pages.

Dad Jokes: The Good. The Bad. The Terrible, by Jimmy Niro. 154 pages.

Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway, by Dave Barry. 181 pages.

Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, by Jeff Kinney. 217 pages.

Diary of A Wimpy Kid: The Deep End, by Jeff Kinney. 217 pages.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown, by Jeff Kinney. 217 pages.

First on the Moon, by Rod Pyle. 196 pages.

Garner Files, The; by James Garner and Jon Winokur; 288 pages.

In Such Good Company, by Carol Burnett. 301 pages.

Interesting Times, by Terry Pratchett. 295 pages.

Kerplunk! by Patrick F. McManus. 227 pages.

Making Money, by Terry Pratchett. 393 pages.

Man Who Invented Christmas, The; by Les Standiford. 337 pages.

MAUS I: My Father Bleeds History, by Art Spiegelman. 159 pages.

MAUS II: And Here My Troubles Began, by Art Spiegelman. 139 pages.

Monk's Hood, by Ellis Peters. 210 pages.

My Life and Hard Times, by James Thurber. 115 pages.

Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz, 368 pages.

Seven Crystal Balls, The; and Prisoners of the Sun, The; by Herge. 124 pages.

Thud! by Terry Pratchett, 379 pages.

Who Could that Be at This Hour? by Lemony Snicket. 258 pages.

Winston Churchill, an Informal Study of Greatness, by Robert Lewis Taylor. 433 pages.

Ze Page Total: 6,079.

Third Time, With Charm

Started the third bathroom remodel today. Well, not really started it, but that old cabinet had to go so I could start stripping the linoleum so I can pour on the floor leveler, and it made sense to temporarily install the new sink until I can get the floor stripped out.

Yes, I have to fix the drywall behind the sink. But one of the valves is a bit leaky, and hooking it up to the sink stopped the flow. Not exactly thrilled with having to take the sink out again, but it'll all work out in the end, and there's a bit more room in the bathroom now because that's where I was storing the pedestal sink.

Way too Late at the Movies: A Christmas Story Christmas

I'll admit when I saw the previews last year, I had my doubts.

I mean sure, they could do a sequel or some kind of follow-up to A Christmas Story. In fact, they'd already done that twice. Both times, just not all that good.

But there were glimmers of hope: A lot of the actors from the original film were coming back for A Christmas Story Christmas. That could be good. And there were hints that even Scut Farkas was coming back, once again to torment poor little Ralphie Parker.

Saw the film for the first time tonight, and it's better than I hoped it would be.

As tone perfect as the first film was in showing Christmas through the eyes of a kid, this follow-up shows us Christmas through the rose-colored eyes of an adult suddenly having to create a perfect Christmas at a very imperfect time. A grown Ralphie navigates the same kind of world his old man had to navigate, but has to navigate it on his own as he never really considered what his old man was up to in life. In the original film, we don't know what the old man did for a living -- we don't even know his name.

Lives have moved on, some for the better, some for the same. No one's a real success, they're just ordinary people living those ordinary lives that their kids don't know about because all that really matters is that Christmas is coming and the expectation of presents is there.

Ralphie still daydreams, the Bumpus hounds still stink up the place, and there are bullies to be dealt with; faceless bullies the parents don't even really know.

It's a great film. As a friend said, it's not a standalone film, and probably not for anyone who's just a casual viewer of the original. It's a companion piece, filled with enough in-jokes a true fan is likely only those who'll consider it worthy.

Garage Update

When we finished the siding project on the house last fall, I had some siding left over. I didn't want to get rid of it, nor was I all that excited to keep it, since that meant storing this really long awkward stuff somewhere on the property. Luckily, I found a place to keep it in the garage.

Then we had the garage mishap, and needed some siding.

I finally got the siding replaced yesterday. I thought at first that I had only one damaged piece to deal with, but when I looked at the others, I found that there were three that had damage. Two I could have used in a pinch, but since I had undamaged siding to use, I just threw the broken stuff away.

I ended up putting it on the house twice, as the first time when I tried to bridge the last gap and noticed I had things on a little crooked. So I started over and on the second time got things in place properly.

We still have some painting to do, and a lot of stuff shuffling inside in order to get my car in there, but we're a lot closer than we were just a few days ago.

The Audacity . . .

Fan fiction is one thing.

Writing fan fiction based on a highly-popular intellectual property is another thing.

Continually harassing -- and then suing -- the holders of said IP when they don't respond to your requests to "collaborate" and have official sanction of your fanfiction, well, that can only be said to be Demetrious Polychron.

Who is this dude? Well, I don't really know. His self-assuredness knows no bounds, however, as he wrote what he calls a "pitch-perfect" sequel to JRR Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings.

And yes, everything about the lawsuit, the attempts to get attention from Amazon (producers of a Lord of the Rings-based TV series I haven't seen) and the Tolkein estate, and his lawsuit arguing Amazon was impinging on his copyright is all true. Read about it here.

Mr. Polychron has posted(!) some of his work in The Fellowship of the King online here. And while my own writing isn't anything to brag about, his certainly isn't either. If this is pitch-perfect, then Tolkein's tone is really insipid. Which it is not. This guy's deluding himself on the quality of his writing to be sure.

Most fan fiction is of this ilk and variety.

What came of the lawsuit, well, per the BBC:

On Thursday Judge Steven V Wilson called the lawsuit "frivolous and unreasonably filed" and granted the permanent injunction, preventing him from selling his book and any other planned sequels, of which there were six.

The court also awarded lawyer's fees totalling $134,000 (£106,000) to the Tolkien Estate and Amazon in connection with Polychron's lawsuit.

The estate's UK solicitor, Steven Maier of Maier Blackburn, said: "This is an important success for the Tolkien Estate, which will not permit unauthorised authors and publishers to monetise JRR Tolkien's much-loved works in this way.

"This case involved a serious infringement of The Lord of the Rings copyright, undertaken on a commercial basis, and the estate hopes that the award of a permanent injunction and attorneys' fees will be sufficient to dissuade others who may have similar intentions."

Tolkein's work doesn't enter the public domain until at least the mid 2040s. By then I'll be dead, of course. Mr. Polychron's writing will be dead long before that. Going to the author's publication website, fractalbooks.com, is already telling.

Let Us all Unite!

Just read this on the final page of Stephen Ambrose's "Citizen Soldiers," and for what it's worth I think it's accurate:

"In general, in assessing the motivation of the [World War II] GIs, there is agreement that patriotism or any other form of idealism had little if anything to do with [being able to do what they did]. The GIs fought because they had to. What held them together was not country and flag, but unit cohesion. It has been my experience through four decades of interviewing ex-GIs, that such generalizations are true enough.

And yet there is something more. Although the GIs were and are embarrassed to talk or write about the cause they fought for, in marked contrast to their great-grandfathers who fought in the Civil War, they were the children of democracy and did more to help spread democracy around the world than any other generation in history.

At the core, the American citizen soldiers knew the difference between right and wrong, and they didn't want to live in a world in which wrong prevailed. So they fought, and won, and we all of us, living and yet to be born, must be forever profoundly grateful."

[Pulls out soapbox.] In our political world, the "unit cohesion" that exists generally doesn't care about the difference between right and wrong, but only about having power. We're much closer to George Orwell's future of "imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever" than these GIs would care to have us be.

GRADUATION

Lexi's graduation was this past Saturday, with a bachelor's degree in something from Idaho State University. I say "something" because they've tinkered with degrees a bit since I went to school and I don't quite understand what they all mean anymore.

This is what I got when I texted her the question:

"It's called Bachelor of Applied Science with my focuses in Computer Aided Drafting Design and Technology and Organizational Learning and Performance."

They've come a long way from when I got a BA in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Anyway, a nice ceremony.

And she's getting married in February. And moving to South Dakota. Life is moving a great deal for her this year, and so far, that life is good.

 

$1,290 Later . . .

 So, $1,290 later, the garage is back in action.

Good news in the following categories:

1. We no longer have to have someone sleeping in the kitchen with a baseball bat in case someone tried to break in or steal something.

2. The garage door components were undamaged, so the door functions just fine without having to spend additional money to fix.

3. I'm rearranging things in the garage in a vain attempt to make things better.

The corner by the door is turning into a tool/recycling center area. I've moved some shelves in for some of Isaac's tools and folderol, and the camp chairs and other long-ish items are going to be moved out to the shed.

The more I poke at this stuff, the more I really realize we do need a shop in a desperate way, becasue SO MUCH OF THIS STUFF COULD GO INTO A SHOP and we'd have work areas as well.

I still have to replace the siding on the front of the house and do some painting or some kind of weatherproofing on the new wood. Not looking forward to that, but it's gotta be done.

The Best Part: Interesting Times, by Terry Pratchett

"I am their lord," said Lord Hong. "They will die at my bidding, if necessary."

Cohen gave him a big, dangerous grin. "When do we start?" he said.

"Return to your . . . band," said Lord Hong. "And then I think we shall start . . . shortly." He glared at Truckle, who was unfolding his bit of paper. The barbarian's lips moved awkwardly and he ran a horny finger across the page.

"Misbegotten . . . wretch, so you are," he said.

"My word," said Mr. Saveloy, who'd created the look-up table.

Situation: Mr. Saveloy, a school teacher, joins a band of ancient barbarians led by Ghengiz Cohen to "civilize" the group so they can infiltrate an empire in Terry Pratchett's "Interesting Times." Part of that civilization education includes tempering the band's language, particularly their curses. Proof that even in apocalyptic times, a good technical writer can find useful employment.

Way Too Late at the Movies: Without A Clue

The premise is clever: What if Dr. Watson is the brains, and Sherlock Holmes is only there as a handsome, well-spoken front?

Thus we get 1988's Without A Clue, with a game Michael Caine and Sherlock and Ben Kingsley as Dr. Watson. I watched it yesterday and liked it, though it's not one I need to see again.

The plot is this: Watson has grown sick of having to hide in Holmes' limelight, particularly as the hack actor he found to play him is really getting on his nerves. He confesses the fact to the publisher of the Strand magazine, which has been printing the stories and is the mainstay of Watson's income -- and things fall apart. No Sherlock, no stories and no money.

So Sherlock comes back for one more case, involving his foe Moriarty (whose real name, anagrammed, is Arty Morty, Sherlock haplessly figures out as he tries to plumb the depths of the case when Watson ends up missing, presumed dead).

This, for me, is where the story falls apart. Moriarty was no intellectual slouch. He'd have at least suspected that Holmes was not the brains of the operations, and more than likely would have figured it out and denounced him. Yet he behaves as if he's ignorant of the ruse. Maybe the ordinary criminal might have been, but Moriarty? Not likely.

Anyway, the film is good for a few laughs and Caine is as game as always to dive into the part. There's not a slouch actor in the bunch.

Funk is Setting In

"C'mon, Dad, speed it up. We're barely outrunning that black cloud that follows you around."

~Louise Belcher

So I'm trying to hold it all together, but it's been a trying week.

Started off Monday being accused by my, I don't know how to describe it, schizophrenic supervisor of starting an argument, all because she couldn't be bothered to scroll a few times in an email.

A drill on Wednesday. I thought I could get out of drills by working from home, but no, that's not going to happen. And it was the longest drill we have ever had -- just over three hours long. I have no idea why it went so long. Well, there was some tension and arguing.

The funk is setting in.

Then I was hoping to have a relaxing weekend -- then Isaac accidentally drove the truck into the garage and pushed part of the garage door entry off kilter. I'm glad the door was open so it wasn't damaged, but we have the wall to fix. I can't fix it, but I've got a guy coming on Sunday to at least take a look. So I'm in this holding pattern hell with that hanging over my head. I volunteered to sleep on the kitchen floor to allay fears someone would try to sneak into the garage -- the door won't go down because of the broken wall -- and the back door to the house doesn't lock. I also got the dogs, because I always get the dogs. It was a really lousy night's sleep, not that I get great sleep anyway.

We also think it's wise to have someone stay at home at all times due to security, and today that meant me because everyone else got to go to a camp staff party while I sat here with the dogs, one of which pooped in my lap because she refuses to go outside in the really cold weather.

The funk is setting in.

The funk is setting in. I'm so tired.

Way too Late at the Movies: The Bob's Burgers Movie

I feel bad I didn't like 2022's The Bob's Burgers Movie.

No spoilers, first of all, so you're not worried about that.

It's a murder mystery, with plucky Louise, Tina, and Gene on the prowl to find out who really killed Cotton Candy Andy at Wonder Wharf six years before this story.

I liked the joke of the prizes at the wharf being the only witnesses to the crime.

But the rest of the movie, well . . .

They made it a musical, first of all. And while Bob's Burgers in general does a lot of fun things with music, in this case it's a miss, with Grover Fischoeder's song being almost incomprehensible in the falsetto voice the actor used.

And I know they unpersoned the voice of Jimmy Pesto due to the voice actor's politics, but not to give Jimmy a single line in the movie was, well. stupid. What an opening for him, so see a gigantic hole and plume of water suddenly erupt out of the street in front of Bob's restaurant. Sure, Bob has the typical stress of having to make a payment to the bank on his restaurant equipment, but is the stress really there is Jimmy Pesto isn't there to razz him about the situation?

I was worried when they announced a movie that what was going to happen is that they'd take a script more fit for one of their episodes and stretch it out into a movie, and that's what they did. I mean, they could have taken a better episode, like The Belchies, for that treatment, but we got a Bart and Lisa solve the crime thing instead.

I still feel for Bob, though, as he's staring through the window at the hole, literally watching his business go down the drain. That part spoke to me. And seeing Lin and Gene's fascination with buttons was also pretty funny. But as whole, while the story worked, it just felt drawn out. And the musical numbers were mediocre at best.

SINNER, Part 2

First, I'm not letting this bug me.

But from a communication and technical writing perspective, it's interesting.

They won't show me the content they consider to be spam. Yet they offer me opportunity (rare for Facebook) to defend it.

There are a few things wrong with this approach:

1. I don't know whether they object to a comment on someone else's post, a comment I made on a post of my own, or an entire post. I can't see anything missing. I didn't go far back in my own stuff because about 99% of my content is throwaway, but still.

2. They won't show me the content, but they want me to defend it. They want to know if they misunderstood something, or if it was a joke, or whatever. They're making me guess at the content, so the best I can do is guess at the reasons why I think their removal of it is in error.

3.  They don't really give a timeline on how long their review will take, who's doing the review, etc.

I know they're a private company and can do whatever they want. Still, it's an odd situation for a company that makes money off me and other users in ways that'd make my head spin if I knew.

Which makes me wonder if some of the snark I posted on a paid customer's (or customers') posts is the root of it all. That's the only thing that comes to mind. I was potentially hurting someone's cash flow, and that is worse than spamming.I do recall posting links to this video on sponsored ads promoting the same grift under a different name. That could be it.

SINNER

I'm spamming, I guess.

I mean, I might be. Where they won't tell me what content it was I was spamming people with, I can't really say. I post a lot, and about 99% of it is jokey stuff. I mean, I would have suspected this post, but there it is still there on my feed, plain as day.

Interestingly, when I requested a review, "it was a joke" was one of the options I could select. But since they wouldn't tell me which post it was, it might not have been a joke. But it probably was.

And yes, there's plenty of much more objectionable stuff on Facebook, but it's still there, where they won't even tell me which of the seven deadly sins I committed. It's a weird place, man. Because they don't tolerate spam, unless they're being paid for it; then they have a relatively robust tolerance of the stuff.

It's not Facebook jail, I guess. At least not yet. We'll see.

Hey, You Cheated.

 This is my tenth post for the month of November. That is all.

. . . Hooray? . . .

I guess I'm feeling less celebratory. While I'll take the tax reduction we got of $360, it doesn't mean the legislature is meeting its constitutional obligation to fully fund schools. Also, neighbors are reporting numbers upwards of $500 -- and you can't tell me my house's value is that much less than theirs; I don't get it. Magic math going on here.

Additionally, my statement says $214 of that reduction is for "school savings," without offering an explanation of where the rest of the reduction comes from. It doesn't appear to have gone to the schools.

I, for one, am a taxpayer weary of legislative sleight of hand in taking credit for finally doing part of something they should have been doing fully all along. And the big ol' cynic in me is left to wonder whether this is a flash in the pan for one year and our property taxes will go back up next year -- because politicians love short-term solutions that help now but have short lifespans that only put us back to business as usual.

And we keep sending them back to the legislature.

Part of it is like getting really excited over a big federal tax refund. Until you remember you're getting your own money back that you loaned to the government, interest-free, for a year.

Daisy's Little Mac

Looks like Daisy created her own version of MASH's Little Mac: "A bird here, a flower there, pieces of dummy everywhere." Good thing Christmas is soon so she'll get new toys to destroy.

Tinkering Continues

Isaac and Joe were up until almost 4 am replacing the brake pads and rotors on the truck. They pulled it partly into the garage to have light to work by.

They weren't able to finish, so Joe went home and, so nobody stole his tools or otherwise did tomfoolery in the garage, Isaac slept out there on the pad in the bottom photo.

They finished the job today, and the truck's brakes are working just fine.

Proud of him for tackling this.

In the tackling, however, he noticed one of the axle boots is basically gone. Had he had the axle at the time, it was a matter of only six bolts to replace it. Now, however, it's on the backburner until, you know, the money thing is taken care of.

AI IS HAMMER, ALL PROBLEMS ARE NAIL, Part 2

I know tech has a bro problem, or at least that's what they tell me.

But I also know when you have a hammer in your hands, every problem around looks like a nail.

Artificial intelligence has a lot of potential. But in our society, the easy path to potential is for using AI for bad ends -- because the ol' hammer/nail analogy applies for those using these tech products for the most part.

It's a fallacy to think that "Hey, if everyone like me were in charge, we wouldn't have Problem X." That might be true. We'd have Problem Y and Z and probably a lot more that are universal to THEM and US, but that's now how the hammer/nail people think. And they exist in whatever sex/whatever you want to scroll up on the big Wheel of Whatever.

Narrowing Things Down

Captain Miller: We're looking for a paranoid personality. Someone driven by fear, frustration. Who's insecure. Who thinks he's being persecuted by authority. He's obsessed with a hatred of government.

Sergeant Yemana: That could be anybody.

From this episode.

And yes, at times, it could be anybody. I know that's tossed in there as a joke, but what makes it funny is that grain of truth that lies therein. These days, though, gotta be careful even joking about things like that. Because the whole *country* is paranoid and driven by fear and frustration . . .

 

No, It's the Children Who are Wrong

My wife is taking a social media marketing class, and part of that means creating a profile on Linkedin.

I am on Linkedin, but when I go there and read the things in the technical writing forums, I feel very disconnected from the current world of technical writing.

Part of that could be that I'm in the waste cleanup industry, which seems a bit hidebound in tradition. We don't cotton to fancy notions like XML and whatnot.

Should I be upgraing my skills to include more alphabet soup, or . . .

The skill set I have works adequately well for the job I have. It's highly likely I'll be at this job until I retire, and that's twelve or so years off. Of course, anything could happen between now and then. I'm not averse to learning new things, but with working full time, teaching part time, and taking on two Scout-related responsibilities at least in the short term, I don't have the time.

And if I did have the time, where to start? I'm a fossilizing Gen Xer; there are many younger than I who have the skills, but are likely not interested in working the job I currently have because the skills just aren't called for.

Goombye, 7601

When I started working at the RWMC back in 2006(!) one of the first procedures they set me to work on was TPR-7601, a general waste movement procedure that's kind of the backbone of the waste treatment process. It concerns getting the waste either moved to where it could be processed or moving the processed waste where it could be temporarily stored for shipment offsite.

Yesterday, I began the process to inactivate that procedure, as general waste processing work is complete and we're preparing for the long journey to put a cap on the landfill where the least-dangerous waste lies for permanent disposal.

That's an odd feeling.

Yet another RCRA, cradle to grave moment for me.

I've taken this procedure through 113 revisions, with only two revisions in all that time done by someone else. Some of the people I worked with on those revisions -- most of them, actually -- have retired or moved on. The procedure is getting old. I'm getting old. But that's okay. In an academic sense.

That doesn't mean work is done. I've got a decade or more to retirement, and I'm fairly confident there's enough work left to do to keep me employed until I decide it's time to go, or I stroke out and drop my breakfast on the floor for the dogs to eat as my corpse cools.

Of the people I worked with then, only Art and I are still around. The building I had my first cubicle in is still there, but it's used for disused cubicle storage now. Or at least that was what it was being used for a few years back; I haven't been out there in years since I started working from home.

Things evolve, I guess.

Don't Ask Me to Explain This

Last night I dreamed Eurythmics-era Annie Lennox, a ticket agent at a French train station, was trying her hardest to smuggle me and my family out of occupied France but I was having trouble following her instructions until my wife intervened, and in perfect French, sorted the mess and told me what I had to write on my luggage to get everything through.

It could possibly have been David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust; it's probably impossible to tell which.

Given this was the soundtrack to the dream, though, I'm betting it was Lennox:

AI is Here to Stay, Unfortunately

I think what's clear about the use of AI in the classroom is this: It's here, and it doesn't look like we can do much about it.

I say this not with a defeatist attitude, but with the bent of thinking, "We can use this to our advantage."

I think we need an assignment where we challenge students to use AI as a writing tool, but with a few caveats:

1. They have to tell us what AI tools they're using and, importantly, why they're using it.

2. They have to cross-check what AI is writing with more, ahem, traditional methods (their own research and their own writing).

3. They have to be held responsible when their cross-checking allows something erroneous to slip through.

I've been doing some extracurricular reading on AI use in the classroom, and a lot of it comes back to the fundamentals of teaching: Students don't learn from the curriculum, they learn from instructors who care. We're showing we care about the quality of work by banning the use of AI -- but clearly, based on the discussions in this group, that's not reaching all students.

We need to find out why our students are using AI, and see if there are tools and methods we can use to fill in the reasons for AI use. I think we need to drop the accusatory tones and recalibrate -- catching them and calling them out doesn't seem to be working.

Of particular interest: Stanford University researchers think they've detected bias against non-native English speakers in AI detectors. The detectors found that in their sampling, more than half of essays written by non-native speakers were incorrectly flagged as being AI-generated, while a control group of native speakers showed less bias.

Researchers recommend teachers get to know their students' writing style and ability early on so they can recognize it. That works unless they start off using AI to write.

So I don't know what to do or think, other than just blow the whole thing up.

Threaten Me, Will You?

A week or so ago, YouTube suddenly decided it didn't like my adblocker anymore.

So it began threatening me. At first, they were pretty innocent threats, basically just making me acknowledge that I was using an adblocker before it would play a video.

Then it got serious and told me it would only allow me to watch three more videos before something terrible would happen.

So I did what any other red-blooded American would do: I caved in and turned the adblocker off.

After a week of watching ads, though (and by watching, I mean zoning out when they played and then skipping when allowed) I turned my adblocker back on.

No more ads. No more (as of yet) threatening messages.

Now I know this isn't a free service. But I also know any ad revenue I'd like to see go to the content creators, not necessarily the content host. So if a creator has in-house ads or sponsors, I'm all for that. Just don't make me watch any more commercials for Liberty Mutual or Tmobile, please.

So I should watch the ads. I mean, I used to watch a ton of them when I was a kid. But we got more variety in ads then. And the sun was warmer, and all that old guy stuff. They didn't make us watch commercial after commercial for Liberty Mutual, or force us to listen to the Tmobile Singers butcher songs from Oklahoma.

Can't Vouch for the Veracity, but it's Interesting

UPDATES BELOW.

Stumbled across this on the YouTubes yesterday:

I had hoped he's spend more time on the early history of "the Site" coming here, rather than slipping into the salaciousness surrounding the SL-1 accident. I've read a lot about what happened there, and though this guy criticizes the investigators for not delving into the reasons why this happened -- he admits we'll never know, since the three guys died. Speculation does nothing, particularly this far removed from the event.

He does list his sources in a link below the video, so kudos for that. Helps me feel the accuracy of this doc is better than most, as I've read (and own) some of the material he's citing.

But also included in the "about" on the video: "This videos covers two fairly different periods of history in and around Idaho Falls - there isn't necessarily a direct [sic] link between the two events, but I still wanted to include the entire gamut of a history that I found pretty enthralling. "

Eyeroll.

I did learn something, though. I'd always thought it was Highway 26 they had to put in once the "site" was selected. Turns out it was indeed Highway 20, as is said in the video.

Note the route west of Idaho Falls in this 1948 map shows a road, but marks it as "impassible." And that is true, because even with the road, there are times it's dicey getting through that stretch.

Also, he glosses over a lot of detail. It's helpful to add that the SL-1 was a US Army project. He could also have gone into the "anything goes" of the early Atomic Era, but the accident is the thing that people tend to want to focus on the most.

The comments on YouTube devolve into the "Mormon town, ew gross." To that I say: Whatever. I'm sure the local Mormon snobbery you experienced exists, but I'm also sure you're exaggerating its impact and are just echo chambering the haters rather than seeing it extensively from personal experience. Crossing cultures is a two-way street, and many of those critics seem to forget that.

UPDATES.

Chapter 16 of Susan Stacy's "Proving the Principle," one of the references cited in the linked video, contains this information, concerning the aftermath of the SL-1 accident:

"For low-power critical facilities, including the ones at the [National Reactor Testing Station] NRTS, the [Atomic Energy Commission] AEC ordered that all operating and shut-down procedures be written in detail. Joen Hensheid, supervisor of the ETR Critical Facility, recalled:

The SL-1 accident was a big watershed point. Up until then, our detailed  procedures weren't much, but we were able to get a lot done in a short amount of time. After SL-1, the reactor [I worked with] was shut down, and we had many, many reviews of procedures. Some reactors at the Site went two years before starting up again. There were committees, and everyone was reviewing procedures and developing formalized sign-offs. It turned into a totally new way of doing business with reactors. Procedural documents that originally had been two pages long were expanded into thick books, and all activity became rigidly prescribed . . . those years of committee meetings with no experiments were hard on everyone."

That says a lot. Yes, there was regret that the "go-go" era was over, but there were clearly many lessons learned from SL-1, but it seems the only thing people want to discuss in connection with the accident is the possible love triangle angle, which can't be substantiated. Leaving the soul-searching out does the average YouTube documentarian looking foolish, going after only the salacious or enthralling. Sure, committee meetings are boring. But the result is worth mentioning.

Forget the Fifth of November, Just Remember to SLOW DOWN when You Edit

Letting someone else look at your work is kinda scary.

But gather around and let your teacher tell a true story about how having others evaluate your work can be a benefit to you.

This was me, a few weeks ago. Invisible to management until a mistake was noticed in my work.

Why was the mistake there? Two reasons:

1. I assumed the people I was working with had scrubbed this particular document for errors like this.

2. I did not scrub this particular document myself to detect errors like this.

I'm being vague because I can't discuss the nature of the work, but suffice it to say: Mistakes were made. I did not detect them -- and detecting is part of my job -- and the errors were detected by someone higher up in the chain.

I have since re-evaluated my work process with these particular documents and implemented a stragegy to help me detect these errors before the higher-ups have a chance to spot them. It means more work, but it also means infinitely less work and increased trust further in the document review process.

I neglected to check someone else's work properly, and it cost me a weekend of anxiety and two long weeks of work following that to make things right.

So, the lesson here is twofold:

1. When you peer review someone else's work, be sincere in your efforts.

2. When you get feedback, be sincere in accepting that your writing isn't perfect.

Here's a quick lesson on what's called "Levels of Edit," something I'd forgotten as I worked (or didn't work) on the document in question.

Levels of Edit means you read a document more than once -- each time focusing on a particular attribute of writing. That does mean more work on the surface, but it also means your likelihood of catching errors goes up significantly as you go through the various levels.

Here are some typical Levels of Edit to consider:

Spelling/grammar. Just looking to see if there are typos, misused words, awkward sentences and such.

Flow. Are the transitions between ideas okay? Does what your reading make sense, or are there gaps that the writer needs to fill to help you understand better?

Citations/APA. Does the author tell us where each quote or paraphrasing comes from? Are references included, as well as the works cited page?

As usual, Purdue OWL has some pretty helpful suggestions on the levels of edit to consider.

But wait -- won't I save time if I do all this editing at the same time?

Maybe.

Or maybe you'll miss important stuff if you don't take a more methodical approach.

I have more than 25 years of professional writing experience, and yet I still screwed up on something pretty fundamental because I was trying to do all levels of editing at the same time.

My advice to myself now: Slow down. Remember the fundamentals. And avoid future, high-profile screw ups. They're not pretty.

And if Dilbert isn't enough, consider the wisdom of John Kenneth Galbraith, economist and diplomat:

The Green Crabgrass, by O. Henry

It's not as maudlin as O. Henry's "The Last Leaf," but the Green Crabgrass I can view through my study window is what keeps me going as winter threatens its first appearance this week.

The Facebook thread for this features gloomy weather and 19th centrury Russian novelists.

I love O. Henry's story, by the way.

Ammon Pumpkin Walk 2023

It's nice to see it set up at the park.

Even nicer to have all the components out of my garage.

Sorry, Dogs, the Knotholes are Gone

Younger Me might be chagrined to hear this, but I'm at my happiest when I'm building something.

So our neighbors to the north sold their house. Given that they took their big dogs with them, we thought this would be the perfect time to replace the fence along that property line, at least through their backyard.

So that's what I did today.

I had to do some trimming to let this cedar trunk poke through. I'm not sure I did enough of a gap, but we'll see. Had to do the same thing along the bottom as the roots are protruding. You can see in the picture that the tree is so close to the fence I had to secure the slats from this side rather than the other. Not necessarily happy about that, but it is what it is.

The next bit of fence along the sideyard is going to take some work, as I have four posts that have to be replaced because the current posts are leaning heavily toward the north. I'm not sure I'm excited to dig that many postholes this close to winter. It's also hard to think any concrete I pour to hold the posts in place won't freeze rather than cure. So that'll be for next year.

Much to the chagrin of our dogs, this means the knotholes they barked at when the dogs next door were barking are gone. I'm sure they'll still go to that part of the fenceline to bark. Old habits die hard.

What Arguing on Social Media Sounds Like

Prompted by bickering along similar lines over similar arguments in a few Facebook groups I belong to. The arguing does little to persuade, does nothing to convince the other side of the "error" of their ways, and leads to dissonance in what should be a cooperative environment.

Jim Lovell's reaction here is to point out that the arguing will only serve to rile people up, not doing a thing to solve the current problem we all face together: Trying to stay alive.

As a corollary, I thought this was interesting: Substitute "GamerGate" for whatever problem or demon or institution being argued over, and I think the logic displayed here applies.

 

Pumpkin Walk Prep

This is what you do on a Saturday morning/afternoon when you have a Venture Crew looking to participate in a local pumpkin walk.

And yes, that is a weinder dog doing some critical lap testing. I think we passed inspection.

More photos to come later when we actually set things up.

I Love it When Newspapers Record History

UPDATE: I've now been told this is a fake. Which is a shame. But it was still fun to read.

Found this on Facebook today, and it's a treasure.

It's the movie prop that keeps on giving. A lot of work went into it -- for something that was onscreen for about a second (okay about five seconds), in an era where very few people had the option to stop, rewind, and freeze frame.

If you look closely, the copy along with the headline "Ghost Fever Grips New York" is extracted from some dull article on the economy.

Looking at the second headline, "EPA Try to Shut Down Local Ghost Disposal Business," you get treated to an actual article featuring quotes from Walter Peck and others in the film.

The first few paragraphs:

Citing unsafe practices and potential toxic accumulation, the Environmental Protection Agency shut down a small ghost-entrapment operation in downtown Manhattan today, and had four of the business spectral entertainment specialists arrested in the process.

According to EPA agent Walter Peck, employees of the company – located in an old fire station in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York – had repeatedly refused to grant him access to their storage facility, which posed a health hazard to the surrounding community.

“The facility in question unlawfully used public utilities for the purpose of non-sanctioned waste-handling and was in direct violation of the Environmental Protection Act,” Peck said.

“Additionally, the company powered several unlicensed portable nuclear accelerators that were flagrantly discharged within mere feet of citizens.”

It goes on to quote Consolidated Edison technician Brian Holmes, so this guy has a name:

There's also this little gem, which has a guess that isn't far off from their actual box office of $282 million.

This really is the gift that keeps on giving.

And lest you think they left anything out, behold the story's final paragraph:

At press time, representatives from the firm were meeting with New York Mayor Lenny Cloch to discuss the growing spectral plague, despite fierce protests from Agent Peck. The talks have reportedly not proceeded beyond an animated debate over whether or not Peck has a p****.
 

Doubt Your Doubts

I did not want to go to church Sunday.

Thought it out: Fake sick and such, have a low-key day.

But I went to church.

A prayer in my heart, because I needed help. Nothing major, just stress over work (which resolved itself as a damp squib on Monday, as the work stress typically does, but that doesn't mean I can't spend my weekends in exquisite agony).

Easier to go to church than not to go to church, to be sure. Fewer questions and such.

But glad I went to church. Fast and testimony meeting, and a member bore his testimony of the gospel but not of the church -- or at least this ward -- and left, carrying his son. "Church isn't giving me what I need," he said. But rattled off that people have been checking in with him and his family.

What does he need that the church isn't giving him? He didn't say.

And there I sat, not wanting particularly to be there.

But I felt it differently. So many people there willing to shake my hand, say hello, help me be involved. So many people who care.

Was it the same with the other? I don't know. But I"m not generally outgoing. I'm introverted. Still, I felt welcome and wanted. I don't know what the problems are, but clearly there are problems.

But how do we sort them out?

Going to church is half the battle. Or at least part of it. I don't know his story, but I know mine.

I thought about things, after his testimony. The more I thought, the more I felt the spirit saying this is where I need to be, though maybe I don't understand all the reasons why.

Keep going. Doubt your doubts. Don't blame others, or seek that beam. Look for the mote, which is what I'm doing.

It's not easy. But it's worth doing.

Stop Claiming, Start Explaining

Help me understand something here.

I've seen a few posts similar to this one, with random people who are spiritualists or spiritualist-adjacent promising people financial blessings, or a new house, or a new car, or a new whatever, simply by "Claim[ing] it now."

They contain the typical "Get-rich-by-wishing-it" tropes of photoshooped piles of money, bros with watches, even more photoshooped money, and the like.

Here's what I don't understand: Many of them, like this one, features ramen noodles, specifically this chicken ramen packet.

Why, I ask.

I've asked that on a few of the posts (do not recommend; your feed becomes flooded with similar posts) and no one has answered the question. They're too busy "claiming it," or so it seems.

I'm used to culture leaving me behind, but there are times the culture needs to pause for a moment and explain itself.

Tell Me You're Overthinking Sneaker Marketing Without Telling Me You're Overthinking Sneaker Marketing

From the Facebook(!) and I have to wonder why:

I mean, I know sneakers are a highly-competetive market. So doing something to make your own brand stand out is essential.

But clearly, I am not the demographic for these particular shoes. I'm not in the New Balance demographic either, but that's the direction I'm trending. It doesn't seem to matter to them that their ad spread preferences include "50+ Gen Xers who've seen this kind of crap "edgy" marketing their whole lives and are so damn weary of it they only look at it to pick it apart for its humor value," but I guess they know best how to spend their online advertizing dollar.

Their "storyline," for the curious.

A few snips, in case it's memory-holed:

And it goes on like this. AI-generated twaddle that, as far as I can tell, isn't even skeaner-adjacent, let alone sneaker-relevant.

But it doesn't have to make sense; it's marketing. It's supposed to appeal to the bad boy who thinks writing stories about demons and reading stories about demons make them unique and edgy, when all it really means that if they buy these sneakers, it's like they bought any other kind of sneakers, and very likely overpaid for them.

And I'm pretty sure the sock shown in the upper left-hand corner says "Kill all fascists," because that's also storyline adjacent, if only sneaker-adjacent because it's printed on a sock.

Continue thinking you're expressing your individuality by walking in unison in branded, mass-marketed sneakers that tell stories hokey enough the could be produced by sellers of supplements and anatomy enhancers. Because if you buy these sneakers, you're cool-adjacent.