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My Haunted Electric Toothbrush
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 112
So I bought a new electric toothbrush a few weeks ago, the old one, it was pooched, wouldn't charge, power on, it was done.
I was a little annoyed as I didn't feel I'd gotten my money's worth. It didn't live nearly as long as the warranty promised it would, the warranty that I threw away upon buying because who keeps that stuff anyways...
Anyways, no sooner than I get the new toothbrush home and up and running than the old one begins working again.
At first, it's just on for a 2 minute cycle, no turning it off. And as I'm fastidious about using things right up I put the new toothbrush away and use the old one. After a couple of weeks it begins to allow me to turn it off as well as on, and it would seem to be as good as new.
Yesterday it needed charging. I threw it on the charger, and from the bathroom all night it played a variety of tunes, beeps, chirps, like R2-D2, this morning, took it off the charger (heard it beeping for attention) - it wasn't charged, put it back on, it was charged, light turns green. I go in to the bathroom a few minutes later to find it fully on and brushing an imaginary set of teeth...
It's as if it belonged to the internet of things, useless items that need to go online like fridges and thermostats and light bulbs, and had been taken over by a playful Russian Hacker. My haunted electric toothbrush...
***
I tried to brush my teeth before work. It wouldn't start. And so I chucked it away, time, overdue, piece-of-shit toothbrush.
And ever since then I've heard it powering on, off, on, off, beeping out Xmas Carols, in my garbage.
Time to take out the trash...
A New Cosmology
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
- Hits: 233
This, a lengthy and thorough read well worth the effort.
In which Lawrence Roberts summarizes - with shortfalls, the current state of Cosmology, and makes suggestions and revisions that he thinks may help us on to a greater (and improved) understanding. One of his postulates suggests that gravity accreting at the end of the visible universe may help to explain the red-shifting we have long attributed to expansion.
There are some very good ideas here, well and simply explained so that someone with almost no experience in what he's discussing can come to a comprehension of what he's suggesting.
Link: The Expanding Awareness Cosmology: A New Vision of the Universe
William S. Burroughs - The Western Lands
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 212
And, having - not "tired" per se, but in need of something to alleviate Cherry-Garrard's "The Worst Journey in the World" - I mean, I've been there, with Shackleton, with Scott, this, it's a new POV for sure, but I read travel literature as much for the descriptions of place, people and custom as much as the difficulties they overcome.
And these trials, the Antarctic, the penguins, the killer whales breaking up the ice looking for an easy meal (curious, who wouldn't be), the ponies, dogs, well, the blazing pack ice and sun, the frigid, sterile, cold Antarctic...
Enough...
Although, to be fair, what with the big global thawing underway I'm pretty sure there will be some treasures exposed, some creeks to be panned, gems to be mined, and damn whatever convention that holds that continent for Science I want to be there when these treasures are exposed!!! But there are no geologists on this expedition...
Anyways, Cendrars not having yet arrived (after the termination of Canada Post's Strike) I was looking for something to read, and I stumbled upon a pile of William S. Burroughs books. Which I thought I would have read by now, but, strangely, I haven't.
So I pick up "The Western Lands". And I'm loving it. I mean, it's completely the opposite of whatever else I was reading, and his junkie's obsession with Centipedes, poisonous/venomous snakes/octopi/spiders/etc, well, it's rather completely up my alley. At the moment. Or merely it's the contrast to the stark realities of polar exploration...
"I'll have what he's having..."
Christmas 2024 passed with a couple of great authors, a little too much Vodka (Stoli, which does less damage) and too much time on my hands, not well used. There's always next year...
So I'll leave you with "A Junkie's Christmas" by William S. Burroughs.
The Power Outage
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 176
Friday night, after I had went to bed and read about it all over Facebook on Saturday.
A power outage, lasting perhaps a couple of hours. During which some of our more unhoused residents took it upon themselves to build a fire in a park just outside of the 24 hour cafe recently opened to honour the memory of one of Nelson's more popular street people.
You knew it would go like this, never anyone has a good idea to benefit the unhoused then they find a way to turn it upon themselves. So this fire, illegal, is called into the fire department, and a local resident is on hand to film the ensuing interaction, identifying the main party through a freeze-frame CSI-styled dropdown of his rap-sheet - which includes manufacturing of a controlled substance, distribution of said substance, death threats, etc, etc.
I know him to see him, he's always been pleasant to me, but tonight he's not behaving...
They're going on about it being a "State of Emergency" and all sorts of other free men on the land nonsense. The neighbours to this cafe, they can't be too impressed...
Meanwhile, across town, in front of city hall a local has charged police officers with a concealed weapon (knife). He was tased, shots were fired, and he was taken into custody, previously he'd been convicted a couple of years prior to stabbing somebody in the neck at Shambala. It's a big deal, city hall is cordoned off, police tape, everyone's asking questions...
***
The local resident, he's a bit of a commentator, he describes the nights events succinctly and with clarity. It's better than the news. And of course I have my own take, but I wasn't there (I watched his video) - he's reasonable in his criticisms, mostly of the flavour that "Something needs be done" and "We know these people are threats and yet still they're allowed to walk around...", and he's not wrong, but looking at all the comments and the audience he's reaching, well, this challenges my thinking. It's by-and-largely the more opinionated hand-wringing moral imbeciles taking affront to the idea of extending any sort of assistance to these people or grossly generalizing that all of them are the same. The good thing is, reading who's in agreement forces one to rethink one's own point of view on the subject...
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