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 |    Not for the faint of art. |
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Complex Numbers A complex number is expressed in the standard form a + bi, where a and b are real numbers and i is defined by i^2 = -1 (that is, i is the square root of -1). For example, 3 + 2i is a complex number. The bi term is often referred to as an imaginary number (though this may be misleading, as it is no more "imaginary" than the symbolic abstractions we know as the "real" numbers). Thus, every complex number has a real part, a, and an imaginary part, bi. Complex numbers are often represented on a graph known as the "complex plane," where the horizontal axis represents the infinity of real numbers, and the vertical axis represents the infinity of imaginary numbers. Thus, each complex number has a unique representation on the complex plane: some closer to real; others, more imaginary. If a = b, the number is equal parts real and imaginary. Very simple transformations applied to numbers in the complex plane can lead to fractal structures of enormous intricacy and astonishing beauty. ![Merit Badge in Quill Award
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| Picked up a cold somewhere. Pretty sure it's Just A Cold™, because there's no fever. This just makes everything more annoying; if I had a fever, I could justify going to a doctor to maybe get some of the Good Drugs. But no. My nose won't stop running, which drives me up the wall, which puts me on edge so the slightest thing can set me off. Don't tell me your home remedy, either. Or urge me to take antihistamines. Antihistamines don't do shit for me. Used to be, back in the good old days, some OTC drugs existed that helped with cold symptoms. They yanked them all for containing speed or some shit, and now nothing works. Not even the stuff that you have to ask the pharmacist and show your ID for like you're a criminal. This is all because I went (shudder) outside, and among (ick) people; I know it. If I'd stayed inside at my house as Nature intended, people wouldn't have infected me. Humans are a menace. A menace, I tell you! Consequently, no links today. I'm going to sit at home going through twenty boxes of tissues and trying not to let shit get to me. I know the advice is "drink plenty of fluids," but no one likes it when I point out that tequila is, indeed, a fluid. |
| I found this one interesting, but one needs to bear in mind that there might be an ideological agenda involved. Guardian link, so brace yourselves for British spelling: Where did they all go? How Homo sapiens became the last human species left  At least nine hominin species once roamed the Earth, so what became of our vanished ancestors? Just 300,000 years ago – a blink in evolutionary time – at least nine species of humans wandered the planet. Today, only our own, Homo sapiens, remains. And this raises one of the biggest questions in the story of human evolution: where did everyone else go? Clearly, they built ships and left for interstellar space before we could take over. “It’s not a coincidence that several of them disappeared around the time that Homo sapiens started to spread out of Africa and around the rest of the world,” says Prof Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London. “What we don’t know is if that was a direct connection.” Maybe professors in England use words differently than I do, but "it's not a coincidence," to me, implies "a direct connection." There are many theories around the disappearance of our human cousins, and limited evidence to decipher exactly what happened. But recent studies are providing tantalising clues. Also, these "theories" are what I'd call "guesses." Any extrapolation from one or two "tantalising clues" is almost as much speculation as my spaceship hypothesis up there. In all seriousness, we can rule out spaceships. Despite recent sensationalist reporting, if there had been an industrial/technological civilization before ours, we would have found evidence, such as a layer of pollution in sedimentary rock. Palaeoanthropologists continue to argue (quite vociferously) over who the last ancestor of H Sapiens was, but so far there is no conclusive evidence. Also, there is no single origin for H sapiens. There are ancient remains of early H sapiens in Jebel Irhoud in Morocco, Omo Kibish in Ethiopia and Florisbad in South Africa, suggesting that our species arose from multiple sites. Yeah, okay, I'm not an expert. But this seems misleading. All it does is push back the possible date for last common ancestor. “Hominin species were likely dying out all the time,” says Prof Eleanor Scerri, head of the human palaeosystems group at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena, Germany. “It’s probably unusual that we are still around.” Another instance of words that might mean something different in other countries. It's not "probably unusual that we are still around;" it is, by definition, definitely unusual. From Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes, researchers have inferred that they lived in small groups and frequently interbred. Again, I'm not an expert. But the definition of "species" that I learned includes the idea that members of the species can breed together and produce fertile offspring. One classic counterexample is how horses and donkeys can breed, but the offspring is sterile. It's well-known today that most humans carry DNA from Neandertal ancestors; there was interbreeding there, too, and, clearly, their offspring weren't sterile, else we wouldn't be here. (The article mentions this, too.) Part of the problem is our nearly OCD need to categorize, label, and neatly box everything. But biology is messy and resists being pigeonholed, as illustrated by this quote from the article: Prof Rebecca Ackermann, co-director of the Human Evolution Research Institute at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, says that it depends on how you define species. This is the source of much debate among palaeoanthropologists: some recognise many species, while others acknowledge only a handful. “My take is that they probably weren’t distinct species,” she says, with the exception of obvious outliers such as small-brained H naledi. “We should really be talking about them as regional variants.” Later in the article: But some groups – whether a different species or not – definitely fared better than others, with our own direct forebears surviving. This is in large part because of luck and their behaviour, agree the experts I spoke to – and is something people living today need to recognise to overcome the challenges on the horizon. And this is what I meant by an ideological agenda being involved. Just because it happens to be one I (mostly) agree with, doesn't mean I'm going to accept all this speculation at face value. Science shouldn't work like that. Make all the guesses you want; collect evidence to rule some of them out. “Humanity will be faced with either cooperating in the face of those crises or competing. And what we see from Neanderthals and H sapiens is that the groups that cooperated better were the ones that got through.” I like the conclusion. I agree with it. I've been saying for a while that we probably owe our success to cooperation more than competition; that it's the former that truly drives progress. But that only makes me more wary of the way they reached the conclusion, lest I fall victim to confirmation bias. |
| Getting back to article-sharing (I've had a few pile up on me whilst I was away), here's a complex issue that I'm sure someone out there has a simple solution for. It's wrong... but it's simple. How millennials learned to dread motherhood To our generation, being a mom looks thankless, exhausting, and lonely. Can we change the story? I'll leave off with complaining about the "generations" nonsense for once, because that age range, as of right now, is 27-42; hence, discussions about having kids are mostly timely. One more disclaimer: obviously, I'm a man, and I'm not presuming to tell women what to do or fully understand their experience. This article, however, was written by a woman. I'm not just assuming her gender, either; her bio is right there at the link. I had been seeing my boyfriend for about a year, and though things were going well, we never talked about our feelings on having children. I have no idea what the "rules" are now. I feel like "first date" is too early, but waiting a year seems... hazardous. So one night in the summer of 2022, I finally asked him where his head was at. He looked surprised, considering the question. “I think I’ve always wanted to be a father,” he said slowly, adding, “That doesn’t mean it’s a deal breaker, though.” I can't really understand men most of the time, either. This could be a matter of "I really like the sex and I'm not ready to break up over this until you push the issue." Or it could be, benefit of the doubt here, that he was subject to society's expectations, which are still that "get married, have kids" is the default. Still, I felt nervous and even a bit lonely, because I am not someone who has dreamed of being a mother; I’ve never particularly liked babysitting or even being around little kids. One wonders if she expressed that to him. Not liking being around little kids is a damn good reason not to have any. Oh, sure, the aunties will be all like "it's different when it's yours," but that's not always the case. One of the most viral TikTok videos last year, with millions of views and some 800,000 likes, is known simply as “The List,” featuring hundreds of reasons to not have children. (Reasons included: urinary tract infections during and after pregnancy, back pain, nosebleeds, and #89, “could be the most miserable experience of your life.”) Gotta admit, I'm torn about this. On one hand, I despise DikDok with a burning passion. On the other hand, I agree with the sentiment; the downsides should be more clearly spelled out. On the gripping hand, I'm just suspicious enough to believe that someone behind TokTik might have a vested interest in reducing, or at least reducing the growth rate of, the US population. I know some women who have decided to forgo motherhood altogether — not out of an empowered certainty that they want to remain child-free, but because the alternative seems impossibly daunting. When you consider everything it takes to raise a child, compared to 100 or even 50 years ago, this shouldn't surprise anyone. For starters, you don't have help—in most cases, you don't get extended family or other close-by relatives to assist. Assuming a partnership or marriage situation, both partners are working outside the home, usually; this means paying for child care. And partnership is remarkably fragile, these days. When you factor in all the stuff you have to buy, feeding the baby-industrial complex, frankly, I don't understand how most people can even afford it. Children used to be an economic boon; now, they're a liability. On top of this, there is the well-documented aversion many millennials feel about making any sort of commitment, so conditioned are we to leave our personal and professional options open. Job security, too, is a thing of the past. Most people job-hop; it's the norm, today. Without some confidence that your job is going to be, if not with the same company, at least in the same geographical area, life is uncertain. So, no, I don't blame people for not making commitments; it's hard to do that when no one will commit to you. There's a lot more that I'm skipping, but let's pick back up at: Previous generations “did not experience the same vocal outward world that we’re living in today where everybody is telling you it’s almost crazy for you to have children,” said Sherisa de Groot, founder of Raising Mothers, a literary group focused on parents of color. “That it’s selfish for you to have children. That it’s almost, like, a morally wrong thing to do at this point, because look at the hell basket we’re living in.” I'm aware that a) we're not supposed to make fun of names and b) de Groot is a perfectly normal Dutch surname. But I'm thinking it. You know what I'm thinking, too. Anyway. I'm not saying it's morally wrong to have children. But one does need to consider that aspect, and decide for oneself. One final point from me: The article quotes a study... Eighty percent of respondents actually described parenting as enjoyable all or most of the time, while 82 percent said it was rewarding all or most of the time. I won't go so far as to call that study bullshit, but consider all of the implicit bias involved... and, for someone still on the fence, it would be easy to draw the mistaken conclusion that this means you'd have a 4 out of 5 chance of enjoying the experience. So, the article is fairly long, and raises valid points on all sides. I won't waste your time, or mine, further. Mostly, I just found it interesting that the discussion is still going on, and what it says about the state we're in. |
| Today's stumble down memory lane took me all the way back to 2007: "This Day in History" Just a couple weeks more than 16 years ago, this December entry celebrated one of my most beloved holidays: the anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. This year marks 90 years. If I'm still alive in 2033, the century mark, that should be one hell of a party. I didn't note it in here this year, because I was traveling and other matters took priority in the blog, but you can bet I celebrated in the appropriate manner. (Get it? Bet? Because I was in Reno that day? Yeesh, tough crowd.) Apparently, it was also the Day of the Ninja, but I always forget about that part. Hell, December 5 is also Krampusnacht, but even that is overshadowed by the greatness that is Repeal of Prohibition Day.The original entry up there contains a link. It's no longer viable. Don't click on it. From what I can tell, the former site, "ninjabeergarden" wasn't about drinking, but some sort of site that sold stuff. It's just that the name combined the ideas of ninja and beer (but, sadly, not Krampus). I guess. I don't even remember what sort of shit they sold. The internet in the noughties still retained some of its weirdness. I miss that. |
A summary of my travel accomplishments and assorted notes, now that I'm back home: I visited Nebraska for the first time. Now I just need Michigan and Alaska for the completed set. I appreciate that they grow stuff in Nebraska that I eat and drink. I'm glad I don't have to be there to supervise. Is there anything more satisfying than watching someone who just blew past you get pulled over by cops? No. No, there is not. There is something about California that keeps anyone in that state from making above-average pizza. While you might not expect or believe it, Utah contains very good breweries and distilleries. I finally perfected the wording of one of my life philosophies: "Bread is food; everything else is a condiment." Driving in heavy rain or snow sucks. What sucks worse is driving directly into the accursed daystar as it is rising or setting. People need to learn how to fucking merge. When there's a reduced-speed-limit-double-fines construction zone, don't get all pissed off at me when I do the limit. On the flip side, cops, don't set up three orange cones with a speed trap and call it a construction zone just to get more revenue.In the end, I'm glad I did the trip. But next time, maybe, back roads during warmer weather. |
| As I mentioned a while back, I usually do these road trips on secondary roads. Of course, it takes longer; that's the point. The only downside is that, sometimes, especially west of the Mississippi, roadside service are few and far between, and those that exist cater mostly to local traffic. Tough to find fuel or food, sometimes, and don't even get me started on locating restrooms. The main thing you notice on the back roads, though, is the utter deterioration of everything. Crumbling towns, crappy infrastructure, empty buildings with gaping windows. If you're not by an interstate, the world has passed you by. But, this trip, I've mostly stuck to the highways because, unusually for me, time was a factor. And behold, roadside services have deteriorated there, as well. Many highway rest areas were closed; the open ones seemed poorly-maintained. Commercial services, like restaurants and gas stations, have become shabby and questionable. Not to mention the sorry state of repair of some of the highways, themselves. Certainly, there are exceptions, places that are still nice. But they're exceptions. Doesn't matter how rosy other economic indicators might be; my Road Trip Indicator is flashing, at best, a warning yellow. We're doomed, and I don't know how we can get un-doomed. But... at least there's beer. Tomorrow, probably, back home, and back to the usual in here. |
| My drive was hit by heavy rain for half the day, yesterday. Not fun, but it could have been worse. Hell, if it'd been much colder, it would have been worse. Today and tomorrow, and that'll be that. Unless something catastrophic happens. Which wouldn't surprise me. Piss me off, maybe, but not surprise. Speaking of catastrophic, you'd think I'd be immune to hearing about current events while driving, as I don't mess with radio. Nah, as soon as I take a break, there's the news, staring me in the face. But that's okay. I don't believe in disconnecting. I know some people dream of vacationing somewhere with no internet service. For me, that would be a nightmare. Not only would I lose my streaks (here and on Duolingo), but, seriously, what else would I do? No, one of my biggest concerns about, say, going to Europe, is making sure I'll have internet service over there when I go. Well, that and enduring another transatlantic flight. Those are nightmares, too. Well, I'm hoping to go, anyway. Just not sure when, yet. Certainly not this year. |
| That's four years of daily blog entries, as of today. 1461 entries in a row (365*4+1, where the 1 is because there was a leap year in there). Which is, I'll note, more than the total number of entries I made from 2007-2019. No retrospectives today, though. I'm already doing one at random every week. Can I do this for another four years? Well, no. There's only enough entries available in a blog item for another year and a quarter, assuming daily entries. So, unless something changes, that'll be that. Though, of course, I'd consider starting a new blog at that point. Might be fun to see if I can push it to five years. But I don't expect to be able to do that. See, if I expect not to, it'll be that much more satisfying if I do it; and if I don't make it, at least I'll have the pure joy of saying "I told you so." As life philosophies go, that one (I call it pessimistic optimism, sometimes, or other things other times) works for me. Other people hate it. That makes me cling to it more tightly. |
| Sometimes, while driving long distances as I've been doing, I get these flashes of insight, deep philosophical epiphanies that would surely change the world, or at least the way people see it. Naturally, I promptly forget them. Well? It's not like I can write them down. No, I'm not going to use a recording device, either. Then, I'd have to listen to myself on playback, and I hate the sound of my voice. Pretty sure everyone else does, too, which is why I write instead of talk.. I suppose one of these days one will make it out of the memory hole, but today is not that day. |
| I usually take another look at old entries on Sundays, but because I found that Betelgeuse eclipse thing and wanted to share it, I'm digging into the archives today (Monday), instead. As an aside, I've now been doing these Revisited entries for over a year, which means that some of the older ones would be eligible for a second revisit... except I've decided to exclude those, too. This one's not very old, from the end of September of last year: "Cosmological Comedy" , featuring a Cracked article on some purportedly mind-blowing ideas about the universe, or at least parts of it.Me: You can go down your own YouTube rabbit hole... YouTube has been going downhill in general, but since I wrote that entry, the enshittification increased exponentially. I despise ads; it despises ad blockers. So I don't go to YouTube nearly as often, these days. Article: 5. Do We Have Another Planet? I've done a couple of more recent entries, earlier this year, about what I've taken to calling Planet Ix, as a play on the older hypothetical Planet X and the roman numeral for nine. While doing so, I seem to have forgotten about this entry from last September that also talked about it. The 2022 article also speculated: A much more excellent idea is that P9 isn’t a planet but a black hole. A primordial black hole, dating to the first second of creation. As in, the first second ever. Which I mocked, but to be clear: it would be amazingly cool if this were the case, because we'd actually have the capability, theoretically, to send a probe to study a black hole up close (relatively speaking). It would take a long time, sure, but not nearly as long as trying to visit another solar system. Apart from that section, I couldn't find anything else worthy of updating or correction. After all, it hasn't been all that long. The topics also may very well come up in future entries again. Not this week, though. I'm going to start heading home today, most likely a five-day journey (depending on weather and whatever other stuff the universe can throw at me), during which I won't be arsed to make longer blog entries... unless something happens that I need to rant about. |
| I know I just said I'd try to avoid articles while I'm traveling, but then I saw this one. Not random, but time-sensitive, and since I think it's cool, I'm sharing it. Iconic Star Betelgeuse Will Temporarily Vanish From the Sky Next Week In a rare cosmic event, an asteroid will eclipse Betelgeuse on December 11, causing a brief but significant disappearance of this bright, red star. As is so often the case, the headline is misleading. The subhead, a bit less so. Fortunately, the article doesn't seem to be as sensationalist. The bright star Betelgeuse, a prominent member of the Orion constellation, is set to be occulted by the asteroid Leona on December 11. Of course I know Betelgeuse. As with many people, it was probably the first star whose name I knew. Well, other than that of the accursed daystar. It's not exactly pronounced "beetlejuice," but close enough to make kids cackle. I don't think I've ever heard of Leona, though. A quick search tells me it was discovered over a century ago, and no one knows who it's named after. I'm betting it was a girl on whom the discovering astronomer had a crush, as the astronomer in question was very French. This occurrence, expected to last no more than 10 seconds, will cause the star to temporarily vanish from sight, a phenomenon visible along a narrow path on Earth. Of course, this is analogous to a solar eclipse, but the eclipsing body is further away from us than the Moon, and the star is WAY further away from us than the Sun. The path of totality, where the occultation will be observable, stretches across a narrow band starting near Guadalajara, Mexico, and extends through south Florida, the Bahamas, southern parts of Spain and Italy, through to regions in Greece, Turkey, and central Asia. So, not a lot of opportunity for most of us to see the "eclipse." The link includes a path map. This event is not only a treat for stargazers but also a significant opportunity for scientists. Betelgeuse, a red supergiant approximately 550 light-years from Earth, is famous for its size, luminosity, and a penchant for confusing astronomers with sudden and unpredictable drops in brightness. But mostly, it's famous for its name. The article goes into why this is scientifically useful, but really, I'm just writing about it because it's so damn cool, and I wish I were in a position to see it. Don't worry if it disappears, though. I'm sure it'll reappear if we all say its name three times. |
| The main reason I usually post links in here is that I purposely avoid drama in my life, to the extent possible. But without drama, I don't have stories, and without stories, I have nothing personal to blog about. Nothing exciting, anyway. Oh, sure, sometimes I do, and you hear about it. I figured I'd have stuff to blog about while traveling and, well, mostly I do. But not this time. Went to a brewery and drank a small amount of beer. Hung out with friends. That's it. That's all. Nothing that I did yesterday, nothing that happened to me, is of any consequence whatsoever to me, let alone anyone else. But you know what? That's the way I like it. I'm still going to try to avoid posting articles until after I get back. Those entries just take longer. |
| Short version: I survived. Slightly longer version: Donner Pass involved cold temperatures, snowy roads, trucks everywhere, cops, and a mysterious checkpoint of sorts that I don't fully understand, but was, to me, more evidence that California is absolutely planning to secede. Once I rolled down the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, though, I had but one priority: find a car wash to deal with the nasty mess left by the salted roads and the dirty spray kicked up by every truck that passed me. Difficulty #1: remember how I have a crack in my windshield? Well, I started thinking about how an automatic car wash with its spinning thingies might make the crack worse. The only alternative I could find would be a non-automatic car wash, where I'd have to get out and do the washing myself, and that's against my religion because it's too much like work. Difficulty #2: Lodi, or Stockton? Either way, I'd fully expect to get carjacked at a stoplight. Anyway, I decided to chance a car wash in Lodi, and it worked out fine. Didn't even get stuck in Lodi again. And yes, I've been drinking. Maybe I'll be more coherent tomorrow. Probably not. |
| You know what bugs me the most about hotel rooms? The coffee. Not really the coffee itself, because I never got a taste for the stuff; I don't like it, so I don't drink it. But it's there, in nearly every hotel room I've ever visited, along with a machine to make it. A machine which might as well be a helicopter for all I know how to use it. Problem is, I do need my caffeine. Usually, I get it in the form of Coke Zero: way more convenient, because I just have to open a can or bottle. Normally cheaper, too, at least compared to what you get at Starsucks (I imagine it's way cheaper to make the coffee yourself, but I wouldn't know). But while traveling, hotels tend to charge out the ass for Coke, while the coffee is included in the price of the room. I'd be okay with that if they also offered free tea. I like tea, especially the darker varieties. Though not Lipton. That stuff is ass. Not even iced tea; just tea bags that could work with hot water from whatever contraption they've cheaply installed in the room. But they don't. The one exception I've found is Hampton Inn, which, while I don't think they have tea available in the rooms like they do coffee, usually has bags and a hot water dispenser in the lobby. But then I'm paying more to stay at the Hampton Inn instead of, say, a Super 8, which makes it very expensive tea indeed. (Sometimes I stay at the Hampton, anyway. It's a solid chain hotel with, usually, a nice breakfast included.) Right now, I'm on my last night in a Caesar's property in Reno, and the coffee machine is right there on the desk next to where I have to set up the laptop. Taunting me with its complete and utter lack of tea. Now, I get that this is America and not England, but it's a city with an international airport, so... come ON. Oh, well, as travel inconveniences go, that's a small one, but I wanted to get this entry in now in case I get stuck in a Donner Pass snowstorm later today. And won't I be embarrassed if I end up sliding off the mountain to my final doom, and this inane shit ends up being my final written words? |
| As I've mentioned in here before, when I do these road trips, I usually avoid interstate highways. Not that I don't appreciate interstates (they are, from a civil engineering perspective, a triumphant achievement), but I like to take my time and see sights that most people, hurrying from point A to point B with the promise of a few official rest areas in between, don't get to see. Not this time, though. While I still believe in journey before destination (to quote Sanderson), my time schedule is a little more rushed than usual, this trip. The point being that, tomorrow, I expect to be taking I-80 into California (or, as Californians probably call it, "the 80," which, please stop that). And I-80 traverses, as I've also mentioned in here before, Donner Pass. (See "Donner's Blitzen" from last year.)Thing is, Donner Pass tops out at something like 7000 feet. Which means traveling it in late fall or winter (and probably early spring) can be a crapshoot, as the Donner Party found out long before there was a road, let alone a superhighway. And it is supposed to snow there tomorrow. I don't mind driving through snow (I drive a Subaru for several reasons, not least of which is all-wheel drive), and they tend to clear interstates first. But there's just something about the prospect of getting stranded at 7000 feet in a blizzard at a spot where, famously, people got so stuck that they resorted to cannibalism, that makes me cautious enough to at least check the weather forecast first. Especially given what just happened in the PNW (excessive rain even for the PNW, massive floods), which I'm too far south to have experienced. I think if I leave early enough, it'll be fine. And I'll probably get in one more blog entry before I make the attempt. But if you don't hear from me after that, remember, I'm tough and stringy and probably not very tasty. |
| No journey is without its pitfalls, or, in my case, rockfalls. I don't even know when it happened, but somewhere in Wyoming or Utah, something smacked my windshield, cracking it. Not a big deal, usually. These things happen, and it's one reason to have insurance and such. Certainly better than the last time something smacked into me on a road trip. The crack's not even on the driver's side, so not really interfering with my view or anything. But the crack keeps spreading. Slowly. Relentlessly. Like the doom you know is following you everywhere you go; you try to ignore it but every time you glance over, there it is, looming. Looming doom. Gloom. So when I got to Reno, the crack (it's actually a double crack looking a bit like the Tigris and Euphrates) creeping across at its less-than-a-snail's pace, I stopped at the Subaru dealer/service. This, incidentally, is one great benefit of modern technology: On the way in, I simply asked my friendly navigator, Google, to find it for me and direct me there. Let's see a paper map do that, Luddites. Now, to be clear, this is not something I'd worry about too much back home. Make a service appointment, get it taken care of. I don't think it even takes all that long to do. But the thought of driving back across the country with the growing crack didn't fill me with much confidence. Unfortunately, they can't get to it until next week, at the earliest. Not because of a wait time, but because they have to get the glass in. I wasn't planning on being in Reno next week. I was hoping to be in Vegas, with my visit to California over the weekend. But, unexpected change is part of the adventure of travel. The only thing that pisses me off is the cost. It's just enough more than my insurance deductible that it might be worth filing a claim for the difference, but then I don't know if insurance will use it as an excuse to raise my rates, negating the benefit of using it. And if they can't get to it next week, I'm screwed. Either way, it's a gamble but, behold, that is what I'm in Reno for. |
| Quick update today because, after a few days in Utah, I'm getting back on the road. It occurred to me that some people might wonder what the hell I'm doing in Utah, considering how that state's reputation is at odds with my hedonistic, alcohol-positive lifestyle. Well, one, a good friend lives here who I hadn't seen in years, so that was reason enough. Also, that reputation is maybe a bit exaggerated, especially in the SLC area. True, laws surrounding delicious fermented and/or distilled beverages are kinda strange here, but no more so than some other states. Just in a different way. Since the last time I visited, several years ago, a lot more craft breweries have appeared, and I visited a bunch of them. There's not much else to do around here, besides hiking and skiing, both of which are outdoor activities (and often cold ones), which are therefore anathema to me. But if I did do outdoor activities, this would be a good place to do them. Seriously great scenery in Utah, though most of the surrounding states can say the same. Next stop: Reno. Fewer breweries, but I'm certain I can find something else to do there, like, I don't know, maybe follow in the grand tradition of writing depressing song lyrics about the place. |
| As I am not yet ready to let this blog go, I switched to a Premium Plus membership, thus buying more space in here. Well, storage space. The maximum number of entries doesn't change, but I won't hit that cap for over a year at the current rate. Bonus: more email space, so I can continue procrastinating cleaning up that mess. Anyway, just because I'm traveling (Salt Lake City right now) doesn't mean I'm skipping leg day. Er, I mean, archaeology day, where I dig up a past blog entry at random to see if anything's changed. Today's excavation uncovered this one, from early last year: "The Attempted Resurrection of Words" The linked article is still there, too.Usually, I can think of something to say, or at least point out where I made an embarrassing typo or other error. Maybe my attitude has changed over time, maybe I've learned new stuff, something. Alas, maybe because I'm damn exhausted, I got nothing. However... this was long enough ago (hell, one month is probably long enough ago) that I'd forgotten about the entry entirely, so I got to learn new words all over again. Still mostly useless, but words. That's right; I still don't see the need for these words, apart from, as I wrote then, "...in some of those writings you see where the author just has to show off his or her enormous vocabulary." I guess that makes me one of those authors. |
| Last one of these, for now. Where should I go? Anywhere you want. I often select destinations at random, because it truly is more about the journey than the destination. This may be too much uncertainty and not enough planning for some people, but you can always do a mix, or select the random destination six months in advance if you need to plan your trip down to the microsecond. Most of my travels have been within the contiguous US. This is not because I don't want to visit other places, but doing so doesn't usually work well with my preferred spontaneity. Besides, the only really viable way to leave the continent is by airplane, and they've made air travel so awkward, inconvenient, and uncomfortable that I hate it. I don't, however, fear it. Lots of people conflate hate and fear into a -phobia word, but they don't necessarily have anything to do with each other. For instance, I fear bears because bears are big monsters with sharp, pointy teeth, razorlike claws, and an attitude. But I don't hate bears; they look so cute and cuddly. I hate flying with its unreasonable restrictions, cramped spaces, and crowds, but I don't fear it; it's probably safer than even staying at home. I'd consider a cruise, but that takes even more planning. So, by car, my destination choices are rather limited: mostly the contiguous US, Alaska, Canada, and Mexico. And I don't like crossing borders because the agents there always treat me like I'm trying to contaminate the purity of their countries by smuggling deep-fried mayonnaise out of the US. I'll fly again eventually, despite my utter contempt for the whole process. Meanwhile, I'm fine with being on the road. |
| When traveling, it's important to be aware of local customs. For example, Pronunciation When traveling around the US, you need to be aware that, often, place names aren't pronounced the way you'd think based on the usual rules of English. For example, there's a town near where I live called Staunton. You'd think, looking at it, it's pronounced stawn-ton, right? No, it's pronounced che-vee. Okay, no, just kidding; it's stan-ton, with an a like in hat. Worse, though, are places that are pronounced like you'd expect in English... but they're Spanish or French. Like, if you pronounce Versailles, Indiana, as if you'd just stepped off the plane from Par-ee, the locals will kick your derrière all the way to Illinois (a state whose name is pronounced like the French would). But you just never know, so unless and until you're absolutely, 100% certain of something's pronunciation, usually by hearing a local speak the word, it's best to not mention the name at all. Some folks don't take kindly to strangers, and their best way of identifying a stranger is by their mispronunciation of the local town, street, or dive bar. Like, in my hometown, we have a Rio Road. I can always identify the tourists because they pronounce it like Rio de Janeiro or Rio Grande. But no. It's pronounced like rye-oh. Don't ask me why; I just know we use it as a shibboleth so we know who to send to the more expensive restaurants. As I said, though, you never know. You could have a place in the US named some common, easy-to-pronounce English words like, I don't know, New Haven, and it'll turn out that Haven is pronounced like havin'. As in, don't bother me, I'm havin' lunch. As far as I know, that's not the case with the one in Connecticut, but you know it could happen. Or, like, I can see myself visiting a small town with a common name, and someone asks "How do you like it here so far?" I'll be like "Oh, it's nice. I really like Riverside." And their face will immediately close up and they'll look sideways at me with great suspicion. "It's 'reverse-a-dee.'" Look, I'm just saying I wouldn't be surprised, okay? |
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Finally. Fascinating stuff. All of them. There is something rather philosophical about comedy. You are certainly right there. 
