Sorry, Elton

♪ She's got electric boobs
A Mohawk too
A little bit o' everything, oh
Benny Augmented ♫

May The 4th Be With You

An R2-D2 mug in my hand, which is currently holding a collection of pens and pencils.

 

R2-D2 is probably my favourite #StarWars character. Before R2 showed up, robots & Androids in films and TV shows were typically subservient, low or no vocabulary enabled machines built to perform single tasks. Star Wars Droids had personalities & attitudes, and boy did R2 ever have a 'tude.

ASLinglish

I wanted to talk about how lately I've been signing more often while at home with my partner. I'm encouraging her to take her time and respond back to the best of her ability (which isn't terrible, I must say). Taught myself to verbalize English while signing (what is known as 'Contact signing') for the benefit of people who couldn't sign around me; now I mostly sign "voice-off". I'll break the rule at home, obviously.

A downside happens when I'm talking and a response is required: if it's an off-the-cuff thing, I tend to sign them without verbalizing. Additionally, while typing text, I'll use ASL shorthand for things that people who aren't part of a signing community wouldn't know anything about. Whoops?

Underwhelming

 

In the film "Stand By Me", there is a dramatic scene where the boys are crossing the bridge, when halfway through that, the train is coming & they're panicking, the train whistle is blowing, they're facing certain death! The caption simply reads:

[Choo]

It's not only underwhelming for the tension created by the scene, it's also fucking hilarious.
 

The Enchilada Song

♪ If you like Enchiladas
A little Pollo & some beans ♫

#MisheardLyrics 

Work From Home

"Those who would prefer to never commute to an office will not 'be considered for promotion, or be able to change roles'"

This should be stated in their hiring practices, then.

If companies insist that their investment in real estate is more valuable than investing in employees, that should set off a bunch of alarms.

What really galls me, is the fact that disabled people, who would be perfectly happy working from home, weren't a catalyst for this "sea change" to happen. It was a virus. A stupid virus.

We could possibly solve the homeless problem by converting all the useless empty offices into domiciles.

Have to fire the middle managers first. Oh, are they homeless now? Problem already solved.

Lineage Mint

 

The last couple of weeks have culminated in blowing away my Windows 10 partition on my PC; and also updating Lineage OS on my Pixel 5. 

I've used Linux off and on the last 30 years, most recently settling on Linux Mint. It was a pleasant experience compared to some hairy installs I've had in the past - however, most distros have come a long way since the late 90s to be fair, not just those based on Ubuntu or Debian.

The Pixel 5 situation was a bit of a chore, since the Updater still doesn't handle upgrades between Android versions yet. So I hunkered down with the documents and made sure I understood the steps, since I really needed this phone to JUST WORK. I'm happy to report it's now on Android 14 AOSP/Lineage OS 21, with the MINDTHEGapps package included.

It's been an interesting sort of long open source week-end. I don't think I'd enjoy doing this every week, but it's been rewarding.

Airpods

Apple's Air Pods are getting a "hearing aid" mode - however, before you get too excited - this is for mild to moderate hearing loss, not severe (like I have). My units are way more powerful than puny ear buds - they have to be.

ARS Technica link: 

Civilization

"Late stage capitalism" is the phrase used to describe the current situation in our "civilized" society.  I disagree, there's little that's civilized about it.

Allowing people to suffer from disease and famine & shrugging it off as "they did it to themselves", or "lazy" is NOT civilized - in fact it's barbaric.

Stripping the planet of resources in the name of profit is irresponsible.

We are in a crappy timeline and the people to blame are the 1%, not immigrants or the commonwealth.

Hawkeye

 

My wife & I began watching "Hawkeye" - they've finally written in that Barton is supposed to be #deaf.

Linux Mint

 

I was busy last night - blew away Windows 10 and installed Linux Mint like I'd been threatening to do for the last while. I was happy to learn - with all of my backing up - was able to save this wonderful photo from a friend. It matches a dark desktop theme beautifully.

The Joneses

A man wearing a pair of lounge pants, patterned with dollar bills.

I  decided to downsize my phone data plan, because according to Google, my Pixel software updates were up. A perfectly functioning phone would now face software obsolescence. This didn't sit well with me, considering it only 3 had years of support. I installed LineageOS on the device and loved it, initially. Banking apps wouldn't open without a workaround, because jail breaking also breaks Google's "Safety Net". When it came time to upgrade to the next version, I would have to reinstall again, rather than simply upgrade. I finally decided "enough is enough" and I'm going the de-stressing route.

I'm returning all of my phone duties to an actual PHONE. I can't afford to keep upgrading every couple of years, or 3 years. Yes, I know the newer Pixels have 5 or more years of software updates, however I feel I am "done" with the form factor. I have a tablet for the other things, and I am eyeing an 8-inch screen as my next choice - partly influenced by my love of my old Kobo e-reader. I might begin researching genuine cameras again.

Don't bother trying to keep up with the Joneses - unless they're the ones paying your bills.

Meditate On That

Perhaps I actually should start meditation again. Shit going on in the world is making me too emotional sometimes to think straight. I'm speaking out of pain, instead of light.

I have nothing against enlightenment, after all, but I have every problem with dogma.

How-To: RSS Reader

RSS feeds are a way to collect news sources that interest you. There are many ways to achieve this, from using an e-mail client to dedicated applications. The aim of this document is to help you become familiar with curating your feed. I am going to outline a simple, online way using a free resource called Feedbro. Feedbro is an extension that runs within your web browser. You can download it from the Google Chrome web store, Microsoft Edge Add-Ons and also Firefox Add-Ons. For this example, I will be using Firefox.

 

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. When an organization publishes a feed, any people who are subscribed to the feed gets the latest news. Feedbro allows you to gather your favorites sources into one place. After installing the extension, you’ll be greeted with this screen. There are 5 options on the bottom: “Add a new Folder”, “Add a new Feed”, “Import Feed Subscriptions as OPML”, “Settings”, and “Help”. Adding a new feed is the simplest way to begin.

 

So where do you find these? If you’re lucky, your news source will publish a link right on their page – all you need to do is right click on it, select “copy link location”. Here’s an example of what it might look like. The 3 lined symbol that looks like a WiFi icon indicates RSS. 

Paste into the Feed URL field and click “Load”. Feedbro will fetch the most recent headlines. It might take a minute for all the headlines to download, but once it’s done, you’ll be able to pick and choose which ones interest you. Keep repeating these steps for each RSS feed you find.

 

Maintaining your favourites is easy. That’s what the “OPML” format is – you can import and export all of your favourites with whatever reader you choose to use going forward. I hope this little how-to helps. Have fun!

 

On Captions Part 2: The Murmuring

 

CC: [inaudible dialogue]
Me: Story of my life.

Elon On Sign Language

 

You mean to tell me you're trying to get a rocket to Mars and back, but you can't figure this out?
 

On Captions

Closed Captioning symbol (Wikipedia)

Listening to hearing people who complain about "captions" on movies and TV shows, you might be better off switching to subtitles - which are for meant for dialogues.

Closed Captions is not that - it's meant to try and relay more information that just text, or dialogue. It attempts to try and fill in more "details" about the sounds occurring in the scene.

Complaining about them existing or being switched on, is ableist at the least. It makes you look and sound like an asshole.

Misheard

Y'know, for the longest time while I was growing up, I thought I was hearing "Crab RACCOON."

Communications Etiquette

Communications Etiquette (as I understand it):

 

1. Phone - Need to talk NOW [usually].

2. Texting / Messaging - Within the hour.

3. E-mail - Within the day.

4. Snail Mail - Weeks to months.

5. Pigeon Post - Seriously?

6. Telegram - Nobody uses these anymore, stop.

7. Smoke Signals - Alright, you're just mocking me now.