(no subject)

[shadowkat]

1. The more I hear about what happened in Texas, the angrier I get at well...and not necessarily in this order..

* the NRA
* gun rights supporters
* Boy Scouts of America (they support the NRA, co-lobby with them for funds and have courses taught by the NRA in shooting. Also the only way you can get to a shooting range or teach your kids to shoot in NY is via the Boy Scouts. Evidence of America's Love Affair with Guns.)
* police
* the Supreme Court
* Congress
* Texas
* anyone who owns a gun or supports it
* the Republican Party

The news out of Texas is not good. At all.

2. The Essex Serpent is bringing back what I liked and disliked about the book. The book has a heavy feminist vibe to it, and undercurrent of how men treated women in Victorian Times. Luke - the doctor - is particularly annoying in both - because he has a thing for Cora, and somehow thinks he's entitled to her affections. In his arrogance, he believes the only reason she's not into him is because she's still grieving. (Which is annoying because the reader and viewer both know she was abused horribly by her husband and his death was a relief - so much of one that she refused life-saving measures be performed, and luckily so had he.)

What I liked was the friction between religion and science or superstition and science.

The romance, I found to be somewhat problematic and kind of wished the writer didn't feel the need to go there. But alas. She did.

3. I've been irritable today - so I'm glad I didn't go to work, and had taken the day off. Wales has not responded in regards to plans this weekend and fallen off the map or off text. I'm annoyed. She whines incessantly when I don't follow through and has been bugging me to get together for weeks now - even tried to get together literally the Saturday five days after I was getting over COVID and felt like I'd been hit by a Mac Truck.
But now? Crickets.

4. Mother is making me watch the soap opera. Okay, "making" is a strong word.

Mother (calls at 3PM): Are you going to watch the soap now?
(I'm watching Star Trek Discovery S4 which is slow): Uh..maybe. I don't know.
Mother: You should, it's not bad today - go watch and we'll discuss after.
Me: You realize I'm only watching this thing for you (and well the off chance I'll get to see my favorite couple banter - which is like hoping to see a meteor shower or a blue moon at this point).

Good thing she called, the DVR was screwed up due to all the news preemptions, so it didn't record like it was supposed to. I fixed it.

5. Weighing going into the city on Saturday to partake of the Lower East Side Arts Festival, but I don't know. It's free. Will be crowded. And I'm still wary of COVID. (I just had it and I did not enjoy it and do not want it again. And while the indoor venues are requiring vaccinations, I'm vaccinated and had it. Yes, I know, I'm being a wimp about this. I go to work every day and half of them don't wear masks and not everyone at work is even vaccinated. But they are also not performing and spitting as they do so - I'm sorry, speaking, reading poetry aloud, dancing, and singing - does involve some physical exertion and well spitting.)

Also, it's supposed to rain tomorrow.

We'll see.

6. Where did the internet slang word "Welp" come from? It's been popping up on Twitter and now Dreamwidth, but not quite yet FB or Instagram.

7. New book "Stitch in Time" is apparently a gothic romance, and I can't decide whether the hero is the killer, or his friend or sister are?

Also, while working on revising my own book - Word wanted to be updated. So I did. And now the reviewer has even more buttons and stuff to it. So much, that it took me forever to find "Find and Replace". Also it has this editor button - that appears to tell me how many mistakes I've made, and how concise my writing is, clear, etc. Currently I'm getting 99% accuracy rating. Plus it has a dictate and read aloud function. The read aloud is a computer monotone - which isn't really helpful. They need to work on that.

Software engineers scare me - though - sooner or later they will update this thing to the point in which I can't use it. Stop.

Plus? I don't want to hear any one whine about writing a research paper or thesis ever again. It's easy now. You don't have to worry about grammar, spelling, formatting, footnote placement, endnote placement, structure, insertion of tables, pictures, graphs, style, or any of that. Word does it all for you. Just a click. No html coding required. You don't even have to use a dictionary or a thesaurus. Research? Easy too - it's all online. No card catalogues or worrying if the books are available. Make a mistake? Can delete instantly, no rewriting. Translation? Can look that up too. Check sources? Can do that. Insert a quote? Just cut and past it - no rewriting required.

I can see why they worry about plagiarism - that's easy to do to now.

Honestly, it's easy to write research papers now or non-fiction. What used to take me days in the 1980s through early 00s, now takes someone like my niece twenty minutes to an hour tops.

Academics can't whine about it any longer.

Comments

[conuly]

6. Where did the internet slang word "Welp" come from? It's been popping up on Twitter and now Dreamwidth, but not quite yet FB or Instagram.

Same place as "yep" and "nope", and dates back to the 1950s at the very latest. And it certainly IS on both FB and Instagram, and has been since they first opened shop. You're suffering from a recency illusion.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/welp-meaning

(The earliest I've seen it "in the wild" is in a movie clip from the 1980s. I don't remember which movie, though I could probably track it down.)

[iddewes]

That's what I thought, it has been around for ages! Thanks for finding that.

[cactuswatcher]

I think it was in cowboy movies possibly back into the 1940s. It certainly was in my vocabulary as a little kid in the 1950s.

[shadowkat]

Thanks. I think I managed somehow to completely phase it out or not hear it? OR even see it on FB or Instagram. But I see it all the time now on Twitter and it's annoying me. LOL!

[svgurl]

I get your anger. Every time one of those politicians sends out some pointless condolences while scoffing actual reform, I get pissed off all over again. And worse, sometimes numb. I don't know what it is going to take at this point to get some real change. I had no idea that the Boy Scouts were so tied to the NRA either.

I feel like 'welp' is a word I've heard for years and out of curiosity, since you mentioned it, I looked it up. Slate wrote an article about it in 2012. Apparently the movie Dumb and Dumber gets a lot of credit for originating it but the word has been for much longer.

[shadowkat]

Above, conuly looked it up. It goes back a ways, and apparently was even in cowboy movies in the 1950s. I just managed to not hear it or forget it somehow.

[atpo_onm]

Software engineers scare me - though - sooner or later they will update this thing to the point in which I can't use it. Stop.

I have the same issue with the photo software I use. I have two old XP machines that pretty much do all the stuff I need, but of course are not safe to connect to the internet. I have a Windows 7 machine for that, and only a few other pieces of software on that one, including a newer version of the same vendor photo software.

Annnnnd.... the newer version adds several features, which are maybe occasionally useful, but it also messes with some older features I use heavily and makes them harder to use or annoying!

~sighs~

Then there's good ol' Adobe Reader, which seems only available via cloud now, you can't just download it and install it on your machine. And again, like the photo program, I greatly prefer the old reader. Most times after I download a PDF, I end up porting it via thumb drive to an XP machine if I need to do any serious work with it. (I download service manuals for equipment quite often, and they often need some cleaning up or other manipulation before printing out any pages from them.)

(Technically, Windows 7 is no longer supported, but I won't update until I absolutely have to. I don;t know of anything on 10 that I really need, so it's really just a security issue that would be the trigger. I know it'll come eventually, but... until then...)

[shadowkat]

I hate to tell you this - but it is far beyond Windows 10 now. We have Windows 365, which I have to sign into at work and at home for Cloud. Also pay for a subscription annually.

[mtbc]

It's with a sinking feeling that I learn some software or website I like is suffering some modernization or refreshing. Whatever the target market is for their user community, I usually discover it sure wasn't me. (I am now conflicted about Amazon who are evil and annoying and so damned convenient.) I try to provide positive feedback about user interfaces that I actually found to be more pleasure than pain. And, yeah, these days, monotonic read-aloud is an unfortunate disappointment, goodness.

I've wished it were easier in advance to find out if works of fiction have some non-central romance or sex jammed into the plot. Half the time, I'd have preferred the story without that facet. But these days it's hard enough to find a story that doesn't take the form of several fat, poorly edited novels where, decades ago, one modest book sufficed.

Absolutely reasonable to remain wary of COVID. Work may force you to play the odds some but it's clearly worse to then play extra odds unnecessarily. Sure, you have to live, and make judgments on which risks are worth it to you, so maybe the arts event is worth it, especially as it's hardly a frequent habit, but more risks are still more dangerous than fewer risks even if both are more than none.

[shadowkat]

I don't know - if it were a beautiful day to be outside? I might try the arts thing - also if it wasn't on the lower east side, and say in Park Slope and just outdoors? But lower east side and indoors, requiring a subway ride (when the subways have been off most of the week and are on weekend hours now with fast track work), It's overcast and looks like rain at the moment.

I don't tend to mind sex or romance in books - I read a lot of romance novels. But it does have to be somewhat organic, and not off-putting. The Essex Serpent? I liked the central romance for the most part, but at the same time - I kind of felt it wasn't really organic to the novel or the novel would have been better without it. Sex and romance should further characters and plot. And it does in this novel - but, I don't know, it didn't work for me as well as other aspects - also I despise love triangles, and the love triangle or quadrangle in the novel irritated. It may work better here in the television form, not certain.

Regarding Amazon? Eh, I don't think they are evil. But I also have "extended" family members who have worked for them and benefited. And at least three of us got books published and sold because Amazon existed. Plus all the stuff folks are accusing them of? Are also true of many many other organizations notably: Apple, Microsoft, Dell, WeWorks, Google, Wellchoice (ie. Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield), US Sprint, HW Wilson (now defunct), Many Universities (Columbia is not a happy place to work), Barnes & Noble, Random House, Simon & Schuster, Persesus Books,
Elsevier, EBSCO, Wallmart, Loews, Home Depot, The Boy Scouts of America, GE, NBC, Disney...

I know too much about various industries and companies via my own experiences, my extended family, co-workers, etc. The most toxic to work in? Entertainment, Fashion, Publishing, and Library Reference. (I still can't get myself to use libraries.) Also Academia.

That said? I think Amazon has over-expanded. It's gone into everything, and I greatly preferred it when it stuck to books, movies and music. Clothing - it kind of sucks at, and it's probably better to get appliances from Best Buy - which I keep learning the hard way. Furniture - from anyone else (learned that the hardway as well). Food - also from anyone else.

Agree on software - it just keeps adding do-dads that I don't need. Someone clearly does, but it can't be that many someones - can it?

[mtbc]

I guess I am fine with romance in romance novels. (-: I find it more tedious when people thrust together for entirely other reasons also happen to find each other very attractive though it's barely relevant to the plot. Love triangles are, I guess, real but depressing, not sure I want entertainment filled with them.

Yeah, lots of awful corporations. Partly I have more irritation at Amazon because they're more in-my-face too, e.g., making it increasingly hard to tell them things they might want to know, showing me things that are available only to Prime members, making me have to hunt for whatever links allow me to order without joining Prime, etc. Twenty years ago their site was a lot less annoying. For books, in the UK I try to use places like Hive instead where I can.

No idea library reference is so bad though, that's a shame.

[shadowkat]

Yep, the library reference industry is rife with serial bullying and sexual harassment claims. Nasty business. I escaped it in the early 00s.

The difficulty with a lot of books - is the writer often doesn't know how to write a romance or sex scene - both are hard to build well. And in some books - they aren't necessary. With sex scenes - it helps if you know anatomy. (-: (It's amazing how many folks don't. For example, cis-gendered women do not have prostrates.)

Never heard of HIVE.

I like Amazon for e-books, they cost between $0-$2.00. Also free shipping. But I also am just doing it in NYC, not in the UK or rural America. In NYC - Amazon is really easy to use. We have several warehouses, etc.

[iddewes]

The news from Texas is just, arg. As someone on my FB said, they only care about children while they're foetuses. And, it's ok to teach children what to do in case there is a mass shooting but not for them to talk about their two dads. Ahem.

[shadowkat]

Or their two moms. It's people abusing power or seeking power for the wrong reasons. They do it to further themselves and hurt those they don't like, that's not moral behavior, it's the opposite. I saw one guy rant about them doing this on Twitter -- and found myself nodding along. They have a $10,000 snitch law regarding abortion in Texas, but refuse to do anything to stop the shootings. Everyone is catering to the stupid NRA -- who had a huge convention this week in Texas. I wish mother nature sent a tornado to take it out, but alas no.

[conuly]

If you're pre-born, you're sacred. If you're preschool, you're screwed.

[shadowkat]

Pre-school and above - screwed.

But if you are a fetus with no brain even developed yet - basically a parasite living off of the mother, you are sacred. Even the mother who you are living off of is immaterial.

[spiffikins]

Software engineers scare me - though - sooner or later they will update this thing to the point in which I can't use it. Stop

LOL. I totally get it - I'm still on Word 2003 I think. I don't *need* any new features for what I do with it?

But, as a software developer - we spend SO MUCH TIME building new features that are SO COOL - and at least in our case, we actually build stuff to solve real problems and let people do specific things - because we build as we need features to implement customer applications. But then customers are unwilling to upgrade "this is fine, I don't need to upgrade" says my customer who is on version 5 when we release version 21....Of course, these are the same customers who then tell us they are cancelling and switching to a different application, because "your software looks dated" - well, yeah, you haven't upgraded in 10 years...

[shadowkat]

The difficulty is while you are updating the software applications, the hardware applications have not been updated or can't be without additional cost. For example? I've had my Macbook Air since 2017 - I'll have to replace it within two or three years, at the cost of close to $2,000 because of all of the software updates. While some are understandably necessary, some really aren't. The last one was providing Facetime and photo graphics - I don't use these applications. I'm using MS Teams and only at work, and Zoom. I never use Facetime. Also it adds television - I don't watch tv on my computer. Plus Guitare Hero and music applications - I'm not a musician.

These new add-ons take up memory and bandwidth. They add nothing and are only cool to those who require them.

The difficulty is in the one-size fits all approach to software updgrades. What should be happening - is just update the security applications and provide different packages for different users needs. Not everyone uses their personal computer to attend classes, talk to family, create music, or play games. Or even photo share.

Plus these add-ons slow down the computer at times, and are hard to get rid of. Many don't upgrade because they don't want them. I don't need an upgrade to Safari - I use Firefox, which is a better browser for example, less buggy.

I have the same issues with the Peoplesoft Database we have at work - they keep updating it, but in the process make it increasingly less user friendly and buggier. Too many steps to remember.

[yourlibrarian]

the DVR was screwed up due to all the news preemptions, so it didn't record like it was supposed to

Since we're using DStream to record live TV, our recording queue is full of extra random shows because Mike wants to be sure a sports event that goes into extra time doesn't end up cut off. Supposedly the service now offers additional recording time automatically in case stuff goes beyond its time slots. But I think your example points out how that's not a cure-all.

[shadowkat]

Dstream is new to me. I've never heard of it.

Soon this whole DVR/Cable thing will be antiquated and I'll need to try something else.

[yourlibrarian]

I'm not surprised, it's changed names a number of times. It was AT&T TV (though possibly something else before that, I can't even remember now) and when AT&T sold off its streaming services, this went to Direct TV which now calls it DStream.

Mind you, these change names so often I am frequently taking surveys which have not caught up with the latest names for more than one service...