$126 in Overcharge . . .

Here, I present evidence of . . . something.

On Saturday, I was at the Home Depot buying some hardie board as I continue working on the basement bathroom. They no longer carry the kind of hardie board I'm used to using, but the stuff they had was similar in price and size to what I'd been using, so I got it.

At the checkout, the UPC scanner couldn't read the symbol printed on the board. The cashier looked it up in the system and said "Okay, $36, does that sound right?"

No, it did not sound right. The price on the shelf was $14 and some change. But the cashier insisted the price was right for the merchandise. Maybe the sign was wrong, I thought. So I paid.

But all that day and into Sunday it nagged at me. So I got onto their webiste and found, yeah, I'd been overcharged $12 a sheet. What they'd sold me was their bigger sheets, but I'd come home with the smaller ones. The ones I need.

So back to the depot I went on Monday. That meant finding the receipt -- not a problem, I have them in a folder like the nerd I am -- but it also meant hauling the six sheets of hardie board out of the basement and back into the car so I had some kind of physical "proof" that I had indeed bought them. I wanted to avoid that step, but Michelle said it would probably be a good idea to take them.

I did get my money back -- a total of $126; the tax alone almost paid for a single sheet of the stuff I needed. And they did indeed want to see the stuff I'd bought. I'm glad it worked out. Next time, I'll be a bit more stubborn at the store.

Nevertheless . . .

Sundays are hard.

I watched my Dad get what we call the "Sunday Scaries," when he'd stew that the weekend was over and that Monday was coming, ready or not.

He knew he had to work to provide for his family, just as I know I have to do the same. Nevertheless . . .

I generally enjoy life. Church is great. I love my job. Nevertheless . . .

Sundays are hard.

Nevertheless . . .

Deep inside each of us is a desire to return to our heavenly home, and Jesus Christ is our heavenly guidance system. He is the way. His atoning sacrifice makes it possible for us to make sacred covenants with God. Once we make covenants, we will at times find ourselves swimming against the current. Danger, disappointment, temptation, and affliction will test our faith and spiritual strength. Ask for help. Jesus Christ understands and is always eager to share our burdens.

Remember that He is known as “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” The Savior taught, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” His atoning sacrifice allows our sins to be forgiven to the point that He no longer remembers them.

~ Elder Sergio R. Vargas

Decorated in Early Demolishkion

Yanno, I know I just got the floor done. But that was only the first of many, many stages to renovating this bathroom. On to the next phase, which is removing drywall where the hardiboard for the tile is going to go.

So I got all of the drywall coming out removed, cleaned up the ensuing mess (except for the crud that fell in the bathtub) started stringing ethernet wire through the wall so I can get a concealed connection to the router upstairs for the network swich I'm putting in downstairs, and got some insulation put in the wall that is shared with the study, becase I'm kinda tired of knowing when the whole western world is taking a dump.

Michelle, meanwhile, has been in the front entry, busily painting. We've had a greeny look to that part of the house since we moved in, and she finally decided she wanted to get rid of it. She and I (mostly her) spent some time patching holes and gouges in the wall, including from when we moved a piano in before we technically owned the place. It'll be nice to have a better-looking entry.

And in the basement, I'm looking forward to soon having the sink and toilet back.

Reading: Nathaniel Popper's "The Trolls of Wall Street"

"The Trolls of Wall Street" is less interesting for its exploration of the WallStreetBets phenomenon but far more interesting for the glimpses it gives of people living their entire social lives online and being much more interested in chasing money and "disruption" than they are in actually improving upon the entities they regard as corrupt and in need of disruption.

Distrust of mainstream media -- well earned, given mainstream media screw-ups, agenda-pushing and the like -- led to increased trust in social media, which Popper points out is even more ripe for screw-ups and agenda-pushing than the mainstream could ever hope or fear to be.

Distrust of the big Wall Street firms, also well earned, led to increased trust in the likes of Robinhood, which, per Popper, so poorly understood the industry it was disrupting they were confused as to what laws they'd broken when they were fined by government regulators.

And these little zealots have now been unleashed on government, God help us all. Too busy distrusting and "disrupting" that they're not pausing for a nanosecond to learn exactly what it is they're doing and what their activity will lead to.

Tears and revolution, most likely.

So read this book and weep for the species at large.

I wrote about the book here and here as well. Highly recommended reading (the book, not necessarily my posts).

Way Too Late at the Movies: Weird, the Al Yankovic Story

Michelle got me a copy of "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story," for Valentine's Day as she and our oldest headed out the door to drive our Expedition to North Dakota to sell it.

Finally popped it into the DVD player today. And I'm trying really hard to like it.

I mean, the parody of the artist's rise, fall, and rise again is spot on. That I'm having trouble liking it might be due to my general distaste for that kind of tropery less so than the film itself.

Nevertheless, I'll try to finish the film and regard it on its own merits.

I really liked the film up until Madonna showed up. I know her presence in the film is supposed to be the peak parody of the successful artist letting success and drugs and sex and alcohol go to his head, but it grates, and grates hard. It goes on much, much longer than it should, slowing the story down.

I'll be honest -- the only thing that might make me get to watch the film again are the cameos. Conan O'Brien as Andy Warhol and Jack Black as Wolfman Jack make the Dr. Demento party scene work far better than the Madonna sequence makes the entire film work. So maybe this film is better for the little bits than the whole.

Yeah. The Madonna bit is going to WAAAAAY too long. There's about 25 minutes left, and I hope it gets better.

Now he's redeeming himself. And his mom got fat. Which segues into Weird Al writing "Fat," of course. There's a lot of hint-dropping for Weird Al's songs throughout, and while some of them are Easter eggs, a lot of them like this are, well, eh . . .

So the film's pretty uneven. It's a perfect parody of the artist's rise, fall, and rise again, but while the first half has a lot of great jokes, the second half takes the parody just a bit too seriously.

*This* is What the Bot Told Me

Who do you trust?

There are a lot of people out there asking that. And the vox populi seems to side against traditional media. And I know traditional media makes its fair share of mistakes, pushes agendas and occasionallly outright lies.

But the "people" the people say they trust are even worse.

Read this a few days ago in Nathaniel Poppler's "The Trolls of Wall Street":

Dopierala vehemently denied the accusations that were flying around the internet. BUt once a suspicion is planted on social media, it is hard to pull it back. And by this time, the GME Owls were talking about several other strange patterns and portents floating around GameStop. One of the GME Owls began documenting every message he could fine encouraging people to sell GameStop. He noticed that many of them were from newly created accounts and that all the messages were using the same phrasing across different social media platforms. "I track a lot of social media challens and the volume is insane, all the same things," he wrote. . . 

Melvin, of course, denied that it had paid for any sort of social media campaign But the fears swirling around were the kind of thing that often happened as online social movements grew. Social media maede it hard to know who was real and who was some plant from the opposition. People had come to social media because they distrusted traditional sources, but this was one of the many areas where social media ended up exacerbating the distrust.

This has, of course, evolved a bit. There've always been people who'll look to social media (or traditional media) and believe what they read because it already jibes with their beliefs. But there's growing evidence that people can now look at the kinds of patterns outlined in the book excerpts and *still* insist that what's being said is true, even if it's an orchestrated attempt at disinformation and pushing agendas.

It reminds me of what Terry Pratchett wrote in "Making Money":

Always remember that the crowd that applauds your coronation is the same crowd that will applaud your beheading. People like a show.

The Joker is about to kill all the people following the parade. And they don't care, because he's giving away free money. Hubba hubba hubba, who do you trust?

Need A Downer? This is *Your* Film.

So I thought I'd do a few things to cheer myself up this weekend.

Succeeded yesterday by nearly completing the grouting of the bathroom floor and also by picking out the tile for the rest of the bathroom. We still have to go back to the store to get most of the tile as they were out of stock, but we did get the fripperies.

Then I decided to stroll through YouTube to find a new movie to watch.

Found "When the Wind Blows" from 1986.

Oops.

It's a bit of a downer.

A product of the times, of course. In America, we had "The Day After," which was a phenomenon of its own when it came out in 1983. And as it aired on broadcast television, it was pretty much in everyone's living room.

But this film might be a little scarier. These two are completely alone in their suffering. And so dependent on the "official literature" that was meant to placate and not at all help if the event actually came. And no corner of England would have been spared the radiation. Maybe parts of the US would, it being a bigger country. But not England.

So if you're looking for a downer, look it up.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

It . . . Could . . . WORK!

So it was do or die day today, bathroom grout-wise.

And lest that sound a bit too dramatic for bathroom grout purposes, allow me to tell you a story.

Back in 2003, we were going to remodel this basement bathroom. Dr. Who themed. We found online some glow-in-the-dark grout that we thought would be a fun way to do the floor a bit differently. So I bought a one-pound bag.

You'll note it's now 2025, meaning that bag has floated around the house for more than two years.

But the bathroom floor tile was in, ready for grouting.

I took the bag outside and left it in full sun for a few hours. Brought it in, and the glow was weak and spotty. I was disappointed. But I thought I'd try something else: I put it in the bathroom, turned on the LED lighting, and closed the door. About forty minutes later, I checked on it, and it was indeed glowing brightly:

The picture does't do it justice. It was *really* glowing brightly. And not spotty like it had been out in the sun.

So it's only a pound, and though the floor is small, I had my doubts it would be enough. So I cut it a bit with some white grout, grouted, and still didn't have enough. So I went online and bought another bag of the glowing stuff; it'll be here Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the floor:

Again, the picture doesn't do it justice. It's really bright. It does fade over time, but a bit of light on it brings it right back.

I'll have to put a good grout sealer on it, but I'll test it first to make sure the light can still get through or whatever. But I'm excited with the results.

So in the words of Dr. Frankenstein:

Roots of Modern Trolling

 

I'm just over 60 pages into Nathan Popper's "The Trolls of Wall Street," and so far I'm most struck by Popper's description of one of the founders of Reddit's Wall Street Bets subreddit, a central focus of the book, and associated other unerdlinings of the Internet that have led to some not-so-nice places.

I don't know how old the guy is, but I suspect post-Millennial. From the book:

There had always been something of a split between the different sides of Jaime's personality: the class clown and the theater nerd, the party guy and the intellectual, the wonk who liked the options matrix and the trader who enjoyed big risks. He had learned to reconcile the conflicts - or at least repress the more boisterous side. He knew the rowdy young man in him wasn't so welcome in the polite society of the modern world . . .

. . .The conversation in the chat room made it clear that this little community was providing something of a similar release for many of the other regulars. They would jokingly recount the police conversations they had all day as they kpet it together at work. Jamie and outsquare and several others generally put some limits on the freewheeling spirit. They did not fully give in to the worst impulses of he locker room and often made fun of the homophobia and misogyny that still permeated so many traditionally male environments. INdeed, part of the reason the chat room was so attractive was that it gave them a new kin of masculinity that didn't just focus on macho bravado. . .

Boys being boys, you might say.

But a bit later:

But WallStreetBets also played directly into a rising current of defiant young men who had been energized by the political currents roiling the American scene in 2015. During the final years of the Obama presidency as progressive movements like Black Lives Matter gained steam, 4chan gave voice to a growing group of angry young men who were unhappy about their own diminished place in the world and angry that Obama seemed to be elevating the political priorities of women and various underrepresented minority groups. This swirl of anger and activity led to a new universe of online communities taht catered to the young men who did not see their interests represented anywhere else.

We'd do well to remember life and politics and economy are not zero-sum games; gains for one don't have to come at the expense of another. But we seem prone in politics and nature to continue to fall for this fallacy. Giving in to baser influences or feelings doesn't elevate -- well, it might temporarily, but rarely for long and never for good. So maybe I worry less about the time I spend on Facebook exchanging MASH and Simpsons quotes with my friends, as long as I'm getting other stuff done in the real world and not betting butthurt that my need aren't the center of everyone's lives.

Thanks, Trump. Part II

UPDATE: Thursday, the Dow fell more than a thousand points. Trump come, Trump go.

Markets up remarkably. Trump pausing "new" tariffs for 90 days. Who the hell knows what's going on? The situaton may be, as they say, fluid.

Poor, Poor Solomon . . .

Solomon Ibra of the "PayPal Security Team," not content to try to scam me once, tried within the span of ten minutes this morning to scam me four times, and I haven't even checked my spam filter yet.

[Checks spam filter]

Nope, nothing from Solomon there, but plenty of people warning me that my iCloud account is about to go belly-up.

Just out of curiosity, I opened each email. They all say exactly the same thing, right down to the bogus reference numbers.

Most scammers aren't that bright, but the current crop are about as dumb as a sack of hammers.

NaNoWriMo is Dead

UPDATE: As of noon on Tuesday, April 8, the NaNoWriMo website is still acvtive, with no news whatsoever about its closure. So either what's posted below is the product of a rogue board member, or the demise of NaNoWriMo has been exaggerated. Or they're in denial. Who knows?

Found out late last night that NaNoWriMo -- the originators of National Novel Writing Month -- have pulled the plug on their website.

One of its board members posted this video to YouTube on April 1 (an odd day to do so indeed):

The video does address, albeit briefly, the two elephants that have been in NaNoWriMos's room for the past few years: Allegations that people who were grooming youngsters on other sites also had a presence in NaNoWriMo forums and such -- I don't know that there was any evidence of grooming at NaNoWriMo -- and the board's flip-flopping on the use of artificial intelligence as an "assist" in completing the novel-in-a-month writing challenge the group started on.

You'll see in the video, however, that this board member pins the site's demise on poor financial performance, though even that is lacking in quite a bit of detail. Many in the video comments take offense that the board member is pinning NaNo's demise on "the community," but without actual figures shared, it's hard to tell whether that's true or not.

As with all things, however, there's probably a grain of truth to it. I participated in NaNo for three or four years in the aughts and such, and never made a contribution to the site. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Yet in this video, there's no accounting for how many employees the group has -- they mention pay and benefits as a major expense -- nor how much they were compensated. I don't know all the ins and outs of running a site like this, or a nonprofit like this, but if you're going to nail your community for not supporting the group through donations, you probably should have an honest accounting of how many employees the organization has and how much they're paid, and how much work they're doing.

In other word, transparency. It's lacking in this video, so it's easier to brush off the accusations of non-support from the community.

Hard at Work

Caught Isaac in a candid moment working on his 1992 Ford Ranger.

Out of Quests. Sorry.

I play this game called Sea Port on my Kindle Fire. I'm on Level 930, and apparently have completed all available Story Quests, as you can read in this announcement I got on the game.

I understand that maybe they didn't expect people to hang on as long as I have, but that's my schtick. It'll be interesting to see what the "soon" means in more quests arriving. Quests are a way to earn extra in-game items, so they're helpful. Not a crippling stoppage, but an interesting one.

"The Road to Freedom," by Shawn Pollock

I've read a fair amount of literature connected to World War II -- I'm a male over fifty, after all; it's obligatory. I have generally stayed away from fiction related to the war, figuring there's enough non-fiction out there that tells the stories of individuals involved, whether it's Art Spiegelman's "Maus" or "The Good War" by Studs Terkel.

But reading "The Road to Freedom" helped me hark back to the time I did read fiction set during wartime, particularly Anne Holm's "North to Freedom" and "Snow Treasure" by Marie McSwigan. Shawn Pollock's "The Road to Freedom" isn't necessarily written with children in mind (as are the two other books mentioned in this paragraph) but the tale told has the versimilitude, tone, and narrative style I'd associate with the best World War II ficton I've read, right up to Markus Zusak's "The Book Thief," which I read last year.

That one of the main character is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints adds a personal connection that makes the book that much more enjoyable to me.

Don't be scared off by that -- the book isn't preachy in any way. A character in the book happens to be a "Mormon" and that plays into the story, showing one character anchored in a religious-based morality that helps him keep his head together as other characters in the book swim about in events and lives without a defined moral compass, though some characters' compasses are stronger than others, or at least pointed in a more humane direction.

What the story stresses to me above all is that we need to set our values now, and not let them bend despite the circumstances we find ourselves in. That can be harder to do than we like to think -- I had a weak moment this past week and did not live up to my values. I have repented of my fault. Reading this book and the battles the characters fight hors de combat made my own experience more meaningful to me as I look to right my own compass.

Thanks, Trump

Ordinarily I wouldn't blame one person for a serious tanking of the stock market. But this is fallout from Trump slapping tariffs on just about every island and nation on earth, including some populated solely or mostly by penguins.

He's golfing today while my retirement finds have dropped . . .at least $10,000 in one day. And one account hasn't updated for today's massacre.

And Starbursts that I used to be able to get for about $2.70 a bag are now more than $4.

I'm not impressed.

But I am learning still. This video might be the best explanation of the tariff situation that I've listened to. Yes, he makes fun of putting tariffs on penguin-oriented territories, but I think gives a balanced view on the discussion.

I Might Be Having A Stroke. Best Get on Social Media

 

I saw this post on Facebook about three minutes after it was made.

I couldn't access it, meaning it was likely removed in the three minute interval from when it was posted to when I saw it (if Facebook's timestamps are accurate).

I suspect the people who commented on it suggested this man was having a stroke or some other kind of medical issue and I hope they recommended getting off social media and calling an ambulance. A friend of mine had something similar happen, but he had the common sense to get himself to the emergency room rather than talk about his condition on social media. He was indeed having a stroke.

Maybe it was a good thing he posted, in that he (maybe) read the urgent calls to get himself help and quickly, so I can't exactly mock him. Still . . .

THE NEW CHORE LIST IS HERE!

Spring is here (well, by the calendar, not necessarily by the weather) so that means the chore list I typed and saved last fall is now printed out with EXCITING cross-outs on it as I did complete some of the indoor chores during the winter.

Bathroom isn't as far along as I'd hoped it would be, because of the whole toilet flange thing, but nevertheless progress was made. Hoping we can pick out additional tile for the tub and backsplash this weekend between Conference sessions.

I've also made a lot of progress on the work connected to the "ethernet switch," except I haven't got the wire from the upstairs router to the basement in the walls yet. That'll be a bigger job that I just haven't tackled yet. And it'll be all done just in time for me to have to go back to the office this summer.

A Way Too Long Introduction

Over the past few weeks, I've been trying to read this book, as it's been on my shelves for years and what the heck.

I'm still trying to finish the book's 43-page introduction. The book itself is only 188 pages. If it needs that long of an introduction, something's wrong.

I'll admit I'm not one who goes much for philosophy, let alone political philosophy. I *think* about this kind of thing, but reading stuffy old writing like this really doesn't help get the message across. I need to see practical application.

Also, this is one of these books that you read as you're reading other books -- I'm currently reading Tom Holt's "Who's Afraid of Beowulf" and Shawn Pollock's "The Road to Freedom" at the same time.

About the Tom Holt book. I note on Goodreads (or one of my social media presences) that I've read the book already. I have vague recollections of it now as I think about it, but it still came as a surprise to me that I've already read it. I don't have a copy on the bookshelves, so I'm not sure what happened there.

Writing Wins

I don't want to jinx it, but as of now, I've written about 37% of the number of posts I wrote in 2014, and we're only one-fourth of the way into 2025.

I want to do more writing in general this year, and these little wins are a good start.

Got thinking about novels tonight. I still want to write one. Or many. But I've also been thinking about the kinds of stories I like to watch or read, and what I've written novel-wise to this point doesn't match up. So I need to fix that. I have some fun ideas brewing that I have no idea how to develop. So I need to figure that out.

Things Facebook Could Fix

No one at Facebook listens (I'm pretty sure if the Dead Internet theory is true, Facebook is at the center of it).

There are a few things they could fix:

1. When a person snoozes someone else for thirty days, the second the snooze is over Facebook wants to flood the zone with posts from that person, as if to say "It was kind of rude for you to use the snooze feature, so here's what you missed." More often than not, you find another reason to snooze said person pretty quickly.

Instead, Facebook could reintroduce their posts gradually, without going back in time days -- even weeks -- for content to throw at you.

2. Similar in vein to the first: When you join a new group, Facebook's default seems to be to flood the zone with posts from the new group at the expense of all else, and I mean all else, becuase I tend to see fewer "sponsored" posts in the days after I join a new group.

Instead, again take the gradual approach. We joined a group for fun, not because we want to see their content and nothing else on our feed.

3. Here's a scenario. I see something on Facebook. I decide I want to explore the topic further by doing a bit of research on the side. So I open up a new browser, tinker around for a bit, then go back to Facebook armed with additional knowledge.

As soon as I go back to that tab, Facebook refreshes. If I don't remember what group or person posted the information or opinion that got me curious, my research was in vain and I'm SOL in adding to the conversation. Users should be in charge of the refresh button, not Facebook.

Last of the Tile is In

Last of the floor tile is in. I only had to cut the single tile on the right three times to get it to fit. I'm not very good at this.

Next is grouting, of course, followed by cleaning up the threshold between the tile and the carpet. Tiny things to do. Then the drywall on the wall between the bathroom and study have to come down because I've got to insulate the wall and run some ethernet cable through it while I've got things torn up on that side.

No one really seems to care, though. Boys reluctantly helped me retrieve a few tools, but made it seem like a burden.

An Innocent, I Hope

 

This is either an innocent or a sign of the times we live in.

Maybe history class happened and he wasn't paying attention. Or he lived somewhere where these kinds of things just weren't taught.

I really hope it's an innocent, and that he or she went on to learn from this public mistake and realized that the KKK epitomized evil.

If not, I continue to weep for the species.

Thoughts on Talent and the Abundance of

Earlier this week, Maaike gave me this chalk drawing Marina did of me as a toddler.

First, hark at that '70s collar. You can see by the date it was 1974. Maybe this explains my natural attraction to plaid, though I have to say my collars don't flare like that anymore.

I'm trying to find a picture frame to put it in, as I don't want it sitting in a drawer somewhere -- you can see the fold it has in it already.

Another problem: I have absolutely no wall space to put this on in the study. Too many bookshelves. Which is a third-world problem to be sure.

I love that I have this art from my sister, who passed about a year ago. She had a lot of talent in art and in music. I wish she'd done more with it. And that sets me to thinking: What am I doing with the talent I've been given? Aside from blog posts, not all that much, I'm afraid. I need to do better.

Will the Real Brian Davidson Stand Up?

News item: ChatGPT hallucinates that a Norwegian man was guilty of killing his two boys.

From the story:

Mr Holmen was given the false information after he used ChatGPT to search for: "Who is Arve Hjalmar Holmen?"

The response he got from ChatGPT included: "Arve Hjalmar Holmen is a Norwegian individual who gained attention due to a tragic event.

"He was the father of two young boys, aged 7 and 10, who were tragically found dead in a pond near their home in Trondheim, Norway, in December 2020."

Mr Holmen said the chatbot got their age gap roughly right, suggesting it did have some accurate information about him.

I wondered, if course, if there were someone with a similar name who had indeed been involved in a similar crime, but searched using his full name now bring up hundreds of versions of the same ChatGPT story, so my assumpiton -- and it could be wrong -- is that no such crime exists in connection with the guy's name. The intelligence seems to have been hallucinating.

I thought I'd try the same thing to see what ChatGPT could find -- or hallucinate -- on me. Here's the first try:

I can't vouch for everything here, but it seems accurate.

I thought I'd better narrow the search, seeing as there is a prominent person with my name. Here's the second try:

Here, I start to show up, but barely. I am indeed an online adjunct instructor as mentioned, but the rest of the information ChatGPT presents here doesn't apply to me.

There is a Brian Davidson who country dances, so that appears to be true. He may also be associated with the TikTok account.

And there is a Brian Davidson who is a school district administrator, but he's in Kennewick, Washington -- my request on "Idaho" should have filtered him out.

Here's for the third try:

This, I have to say, is accurate, though not current.

I was Scoutmaster, but no longer. And I do recall asking the question regarding John Adams Parkway on a city Facebook post.

So while ChatGPT isn't hallucinating at all in these three attempts, it took a bit of work to narrow the search down to me, and what information is presented is accurate if not current, though woefully incomplete. The incompleteness is likely due to me not commenting much on my full-time job.

Something else I just thought of: I'm surprised the LLM didn't find the other Brian Davidson who's also local, with a criminal record. Maybe that's a sign those records are still in areas the makers of these LLM can't scrape. I know he exists because I've met him, and had his reputation follow me when I was renewing my drivers license and the police showed up, looked at me, and said, "Oh, that's not him."

So can we trust large language whatsises to produce the truth? Maybe. But clearly what the engines produce should not be taken at face value.

I'm going to share this with my students.

Closing in on the Floor

This is always an exciting part of tile laying to me -- getting the fringe and end bits installed once the main floor is put in. That's risky, because I have to make sure the pieces fit before I get all excited with the thinset, but in this case, it's worked.

I did run into two boo-boos, one of which you can see in the lower right of the photo. I had to clean the thinset off the floor and out of the spot because the fitment wasn't as right as I was hoping. But I am very close to having the floor ready for grouting. Exciting times.

And yes I love playing with tape. The tape patches on the fringe tile helped me get the right tile in the right spot, and the trapezoid showed me where it was safe to stand. As you can see, this is a small bathroom but the diamond pattern we opted for made laying the floor a lot more complicated, but I think we'll be happy with the end result.

My Soul Delighteth in the Song of the Heart

We read this tonight in our Gospel Doctrine lesson:

"For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads." (Doctrine and Covenants 25:12)

The writers of the lesson ask us to ponder which are our "songs of the heart," through which the Spirit has spoken to us. They suggested we sing a few as a family.

To tease me, my wife started singing "Give Said the Little Stream," as that's a song I referenced often in lessons with our kids when they were younger. It's certainly a song that speaks to me; one that is a song of the heart.

I have others, of course. I'm highly, spiritually, succeptible to songs of the heart. Many speak to me, some in ways I can't really explain.

This one has always been dear to me, and became more dear after I served a mission in France and learned it was written by a medieval Frenchman, also seeking to come closer to God through song:

If ever a song of the heart wants to make me leap out of my chair and shout, it's this one, though by the fourth verse I'm melting and can hardly sing anymore:

Jehovah speaks! Let earth give ear,

And Gentile nations turn and live.

His mighty arm is making bare,

His mighty arm is making bare

His cov’nant people to receive.

This one, I truly believe, will be sung as an intercessory prayer in Heaven as God watches his children struggle on Earth, working to find their way home.

And there's this one. Probably not on many lists of songs of the heart, but a certain lyric blasted through my teenage worries and the sound of a brick saw to slap me -- spiritually -- right in the heart as I worried about being worthy enough to serve a mission.

The song said to me. I took the steps to become worthy.

Thanks, Weird Al.

I'm just saying through all the backhanded gallantries the lyrics possess, that line "You're not perfect, but I love you anyhow" was God speaking to a young but weary heart. So this song is indeed a song of my heart.

A Whirlwind 24 Hours . . .

Ellen Yost Griffin, 83, of Iona, Idaho, passed away at Rigby Lake Assisted Living Center on Friday, March 21, 2025, from complications of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Ellen was born on October 27, 1941, in her Grandmother Yost’s house in Springdale, Idaho, to Orlin Carl Yost and Margie Ardell Kunzler Yost. She was the oldest of six sisters. She grew up in Yost, Brigham City, and Ogden, Utah, and recalled spending many summer months living with her grandma and grandpa Yost, learning to cook and fish.

She married Wayne J Griffin in the Salt Lake City, Utah, LDS Temple on May 12, 1961. They lived in West Weber, Utah, where she worked as head bookkeeper of the Ogden First Federal Bank, for the Internal Revenue Service, and then back again to Ogden First Federal where she became the head of their computer department.

She had three children, Nori, Carl, and Michelle. They participated in many family events from learning to water ski, riding snowmobiles, to many other outings.

In 1977, they moved to Iona, Idaho, to work at and buy into Yost Office Systems, operated by her Uncle Willis Yost. She trained people to use various word processing equipment from Vydec, Wang, and others. She traveled throughout Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming training others to use the equipment. She later moved on to more administrative work in the company. They bought the company in 1982 with Bruce Jones, Jack Larsen, and Bruce Newbold. They sold the business in 1995.

She was active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from her youth, recalling work in road shows, Primary, Relief Society, and the Young Women organization. She and her husband also served for more than two years on missions to the Washington, D.C., LDS Temple.

She wrote this about her time spent working and playing with her husband Wayne: “He has been a good provider and leader in our house. We have had a good friendship and marriage to begin with, and then we have been blessed with financial opportunities and the health to work and be active in the church. I am very conscious of all my Creator has given to me.”

She is survived by her husband Wayne of Iona; daughter Nori (Kevin) Brower of Rigby; son Carl (Tani) Griffin of Payson, Utah; daughter Michelle (Brian) Davidson of Ammon; eight grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren and one on the way; and her sisters Oleatta McFarland of Riverdale, Utah; Donell (John) Bowles of Plain City, Utah; Renee (Wallace) Vernieuw of Layton, Utah; Jeannie (Kim) Webber of Meridian, Idaho;  and Penny (Paul) Manning of Idaho Falls.

She was preceded in death by her parents, and two brothers who died at birth.

The family would like to express its thanks to the caregivers at Rigby Lake Assisted Living, BRiO Home Health and Hospice, Teton Healthcare, Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, Chanse Powell, and longtime friends Mike and Bernie Olsen for their caring service and love for Ellen.

Tile is Cut (Almost)

I felt pretty useless after work today, and since March had blessed us with a bit of sun, I got the tile saw out and cut almost all of the tile I need to cut for the bathroom floor. I may have some fine-tuning to do, but I'll figure that out after I get the floor cleaned and can start fitting the tile better.

This in no way gets me close to putting the toilet and sink back, but it's part of the process. Next will be taking down some drywall, doing a little electrical work, network cable running, and insulation -- I want some insulation in the wall between the bathroom and the study. Then there's a tile backsplash to put into place, but we haven't picked the tile for that job yet.

The "Official" Stupid -- It Burns

The official stupid coming from the Department of Energy is so toxic it burns. 

Two Styles of Waiting, Explained by 'The Princess Bride'

Update: It has not come to pass, alas.

And dammit.

More vagueblogging, which is my right as an American.

I am waiting, yes. Waiting for news. I'm at the point where no news may actually be slightly better than news that comes via email, which is almost always bad news.

I'm waiting like Inigo Montoya is waiting:

The only other way to wait is like Vizzini himself, but I don't yet have the confidence for that:

I keep stacking up reasons for the thing I'm hoping happens. Yesterday was a hard front on that, and though today has been better, it's not been anxiety-free. Anxiety is normally something I can cope with, but I'm getting tired of this particular brand of anxiety. Hoping something positive happens soonish.

My Naps are Being Documented

I don't know why my naps are being documented, but I do appreciate my consistency in using that particular blanket. And it's ironic that as much time as I spend in my pajama pants, I was caught in my jeans napping over three consecutive days.

Amazon Blink Doorbell: A Review That Is Not Necessarily an Endorsement

My wife got her Dad a Blink video doorbell for his birthday a week ago. She asked if I wouldn't mind installing it for him since I successfully installed our Ring doorbell a few years prior, and I agreed.

A week and three tinkering sessions later, I can conclude that while the Blink does indeed function as a video doorbell, the app and the installation instructions for the device leave a lot to be desired.

What I was expecting: Since I had installed our own Ring, I was expecting that level of compentency from the app and instructions: Smooth flow through every step necessary to connect the camera to our existing doorbell writing and fluid connection between the doorbell and our other Amazon devices.

What I got: Incomplete instructions that left me guessing why the video feed from the camera wasn't showing up in the app or on any of the connected Amazon devices.

There was one particular problem that wasn't Amazon's fault, though it did befuddle me for a while: The existing doorbell wiring was shorting out on the aluminum cladding around the doorjamb. That was preventing the doorbell from connecting at all to the other devices, but once I figured that out I was able to get the camera to communicate.

Alas, no video.

But here I felt that the instructions were incomplete. I recalled from the Ring installation that there was a step involving the existing doorbell chime that the Blink installation instructions seemed to have omitted. I set that concern aside as I struggled with the obvious problem: Sound seemed to work (though the existing chime didn't) but it was the video that was not. I spent a good hour today poking around in the camera settings and also in the Alexa settings to no avail.

But the chime problem kept nagging me.

So I found a setting that concerned testing the existing chime for functionality. I followed that bit of instruction -- left out of the original setup -- and the chime worked. And so, magically, did the video feed. Clearly in the app's logic tree was the fact that the chime function had to be confirmed for the "connected to home wiring" loop to close. Keep that in mind when installing your own Blink.

Anyway, the app/instructions for the Blink, in omitting this step, are flawed. A user shouldn't have to struggle over hours trying to guess why the video connection wasn't working only to figure out that the chime functionality closed the home wiring loop and made the whole shebang work. If that's essential, it should be included in the initial setup.

My father-in-law is pretty happy with the setup now that it's working, and I'm certainly glad it's all working now. But getting it to work shouldn't have been so laborious.

Nose, Separated and Extracted

Repairs have begun on Little Mac.

My job tonight, separate and extract the two pieces holding his nose together.

Got it done, too. Faster than I thought it would go.

"Alexa, Tell Jeff Bezos He's A Weiner."

I should be outraged, but:

1. I'm tired of being outraged.

2. Figured Amazon was listening inalready.

3. About the only thing I ask Alexa for are:

a. "Find Corner Gas on YouTube"

b. "Play 'The Best of Car Talk.'"

So they can listen in all they want.

What am I on about? This.

In a nutshell, Amazon is rolling out AI-enabled whatsises in the next few weeks and to make it all work, they'll no longer allow users who don't want their voice recordings entering the cloud block that feature. If they do block it, the devices they've paid for and have been working for however long they've had them will brick.

Brick, as in "not function anymore."

Tell me again why I'm not excited to move to streaming services, 'cause nobody can take my CDs and DVDs away from me because I no longer want to play.

From the article:

Amazon said in its email today that by default, it will delete recordings of users’ Alexa requests after processing. However, anyone with their Echo device set to “Don’t save recordings” will see their already-purchased devices’ Voice ID feature bricked. Voice ID enables Alexa to do things like share user-specified calendar events, reminders, music, and more. Previously, Amazon has said that "if you choose not to save any voice recordings, Voice ID may not work." As of March 28, broken Voice ID is a guarantee for people who don't let Amazon store their voice recordings.

Big Brother is listening. Not that we didn't suspect that already.

Vagueblogging, Part 2

Ten days ago, vagueblogging.

Today, more of the same. It's related, of course.

I can report it went well, at least this part of it. Maybe there will be more to come.

Here's something I learned after I fretted about it all the way home: Income shown in Box 1 of the W2 is gross pay, before all taxes are taken out.

Probably not revelatory for most of you, but certainly important to me as I navigate the subject of the vagueblogging. I've never been all that good at math, so figuring this out is important to me. And could become more important to me as time passes. We'll see.

Wire Twiddling

Work on the home network continues, though I'm kinda doing it backwards. I still don't have a concealed connection from the router upstairs to the network switch in the basement, but I do have a lot of concealed connections from various spots in the basement to the spot where the network switch will go.

I want to do it that way so I've only got one portion of the house torn up at a time, and given the networking is part of a bathroom remodel, that's taking a bit longer than I anticipated. But I am making progress. That progress includes things like this:

I think I mentioned I got a set of ethernet wiring tools for Christmas. I've spent parts of the last few weeks making eithernet wiring connections, and it's not as easy as it looks. The night before daylight saving kicked in, I was up until 1 am practising. Using the recommended method, I was not very good. Wires kept getting crossed. But I figured out if I put the itty-bitty wires into the connector one at a time, I got it right every time. It takes a bit longer, granted, but my failure rate fell to near zero.

A Facebook Post I Will Never Make

A Facebook post I will never make.

Scam Text Dumps Me Immediately

 

As you can see, I was removed from this group.

I was removed from this scam text group *before* I had a chance to open it. And I saw it come in, so it was only a matter of seconds between the text coming in and me getting removed from it.

I DEMAND REINSTATEMENT TO THE SCAM GROUP TEXT.

Of course, I reported the number as spam and blocked it anyway. Jerks wouldn't even let me taunt them.

Entering the "Have to Move A Lotta Crap" Phase

In that project phase where the door had to go in order to get the tile laid, so it's a mess.

I'm not a fan of this phase, but it's necessary to get the tile done. I laid all of the full tiles today, and hopefully after a bit more snow melts off today, I'll be able to get the tile saw out and work on the cuts tomorrow, with the goal of finishing the tile tomorrow, sans grout. That'll be for another day.

Though it looks like I could lay a few more full tiles close to the door, the space is just a bit too short. I'll put the door back on before I do the grout, because nobody wants the door hanging out forever before I grout. The grout is supposed to be glow-in-the dark, and that works because the bathroom will be Dr. Who themed. Whether or not the grout actually will glow is up in the air. We'll see what happens. Also, I don't have a lot of it.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting on a delivery of more home network parts so I can keep that little project going too. I have at least one more length of ethernet I want to string, and I'm thinking I'll relocate a light in the hallway as I do that part, since I'm cutting holes in the ceiling anyway.

The floor isn't as level as I'd like it to be, but I think it'll still work. It's more level than it was to begin with.

On Why It's Important to Re-Read Conference Talks

I can recall several times in the past decade or so listening to a talk at Conference and wondering, "Why are they talking about this particular subject?"

In once case, which I'll discuss here, the topic seemed a bit jingoistic in a Conference addressing a worldwide church, rather than a church with most of its members in the United States.

Recent events, however, have brought two of these talks to the fore, and the counsel offered therein is more important now than it was when the messages were given. It's almost like those giving the talks are inspired or, dare I say, prophetic.

First, President Russell M. Nelson's talk called "The Power of Spiritual Momentum," from October 2022.

I love his introduction:

"My dear brothers and sisters, I love you. I cherish this opportunity to speak with you today. I pray daily that you will be protected from the fierce attacks of the adversary and have the strength to push forward through whatever challenges you face."

He promises we can find and maintain "spiritual momentum" that will carry us through the challenges we feel on a daily basis. He offers us four bits of advice:

1. Get on the covenant path and stay there.

2. Discover the joy of daily repentance.

3. Learn about God and how He works.

4. Seek and expect miracles.

5. End conflict in your personal life.

I strive -- I don't always succeed -- to live by this counsel.

He also says this:

"None of us can control nations or the actions of others or even members of our own families. But we can control ourselves. My call today, dear brothers and sisters, is to end conflicts that are raging in your heart, your home, and your life. Bury any and all inclinations to hurt others—whether those inclinations be a temper, a sharp tongue, or a resentment for someone who has hurt you. The Savior commanded us to turn the other cheek, to love our enemies, and to pray for those who despitefully use us."

Emphasis is mine, but the words are his.

Boy did I need to re-hear that in 2025.

On to the one I thought was jingoistic at the time, but now I see was a warning for what we're seeing today.

I mean, of course, Dallin H. Oaks' "Defending our Divinely Inspired Constitution," from April 2021.

Why talk about the US Constitution to a worldwide church? Just maybe because the flouting of the Constitution we're seeing now is really having an impact on, you know, the world.

This is going to sound familiar, as we've already discussed President Nelson's talk:

"There are many political issues, and no party, platform, or individual candidate can satisfy all personal preferences. Each citizen must therefore decide which issues are most important to him or her at any particular time. Then members should seek inspiration on how to exercise their influence according to their individual priorities. This process will not be easy. It may require changing party support or candidate choices, even from election to election.

"Such independent actions will sometimes require voters to support candidates or political parties or platforms whose other positions they cannot approve. That is one reason we encourage our members to refrain from judging one another in political matters. We should never assert that a faithful Latter-day Saint cannot belong to a particular party or vote for a particular candidate. We teach correct principles and leave our members to choose how to prioritize and apply those principles on the issues presented from time to time. We also insist, and we ask our local leaders to insist, that political choices and affiliations not be the subject of teachings or advocacy in any of our Church meetings."

Emphasis here is mine, but the words are straight from his talk. I make these emphases because I hear things to the contrary on a constant basis from members of the church, who clearly hold what Elders Oaks says in little regard.

The Republic Isn't Doomed Yet, but They Sure as Hell aren't Literate

I should probably blur the name, but what the hell, she posted it.

I don't understand a world in which proper and common writing practice is regarded as political. But maybe I should expect to see more of that since basic literacy is dying.

Commenters are likely to deride EIN's response to this comment as condescending. Maybe it is. But it does set the facts straight. And these facts are expressly NOT political. They're not even pedantic. It's the basic kind of thing I learned in school, and am trying to teach my students now.

How to cure it? Read a lot. Write a lot. Practice some basic literacy skills. Recognize that maybe not everything in the world is political.

"That Could Be Anybody"

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

Yemana: That could be anybody.

This little exchange is from the second episode of the first season of Barney Miller. I think about it often, particularly during trying times. It's a good reminder that the next revolutionary could be us. Or me, more specifically.

I Should Have Known Better, Part Infinite

Though I have yet to fall victim to an online scam (knock on wood) I continue blithely believing those entities who claim to have my best interests at heart in protecting me from the evils of the online world.

Viz, this email received this morning from Experian, one of the three credit card reporting agencies:

Of course I want them to remove my info. And yes I see the "upgrade" portion of the email, but I figure, hey check this out to see if what they're offering now is a freebie and the "upgrade" applies to the "recurring scans" only.

Hah. You already know where this is going.

Of COURSE Experian wants $25 a month -- A MONTH, $300 a year -- for this service. Which is probably 100% automated.

So no. I'll continue avoiding the scams manually -- and they do pour into the email inbox to be sure -- and save myself the money. There are probably free services out there I could use to do what Experian wants to do for me, but I'm not bothered to find them and they probably don't exist anyway.

So my choice is to continue to be vigilant against bad guy scams, or pay for a good guy scam and still have to be vigilant against bad guy scams. There is no choice at all here, really.

It just bugs me. I'm irritated that these companies see me as a piggybank to exploit to the tune of $300 a year, rather than someone who might appreciate occasional free use of their automated info detection services. But nothing is free in a capitalist world.