Author Archives: shelldigger

11.13.16
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Adobe

I just updated my Adobe (Flash Player) and had Mcafee foisted upon me. I had no option to opt out of the Mcafee installation. There are lines that should not be crossed in internet land. This is one of those cases.

I mean it’s easy enough to uninstall but dammit I shouldn’t have too. I feel violated. Am I in the minority when I say that acts like this are criminal? As in, should be against the law?

EDIT:  I should have mentioned it was Adobe Flash Player. And I changed upgrading to the correct term updating.  Thank you Steve and NeuronNotes  🙂

 

11.12.16
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I Mentioned At Some Point I Played Guitar…

I tried to upload this audio file here but it requires an upgrade. And I’m a cheap S.O.B. so I went searching for an online music database. I settled with Soundcloud and finally got around to uploading a music file. It took some doing, turns out I had to change a wma file to a wav file, so had to figure out how to do that. Which I discovered I could do exactly that with itunes, which I already have and did not need to dl anything. Just had to learn how to do it.

Ain’t the internet great?

So if you want to hear this you will need to click this link. I could not get this to play on Chrome, but I have HTML5 autoplay disabled. I very much dislike being hit with autoplay video everywhere I go. But it worked fine for me on IE. So, what I’m getting at I suppose is, if you have trouble getting it to play it is likely a browser issue.

I have a rough (absoluteley raw, no editing, no effects) song on a 16 track digital recorder I want to put up soon, as well as another track or two from my pro studio experience. Will get around to it as I can. Life is such that it is hard to take the time to hunt down all of the neccessities to get these kind of jobs done.

A little intro is appropriate I guess. I used to play with a band a while back and a few more before that that through the years.When my youngest son was born I had to retire from the music thing as babies are quite demanding of time. Anyway some years later my old buddy Brose who sings and plays bass on this song, called me up about doing some guitar work on some stuff he had going in a studio. I jumped at the opportunity and was able to record a couple of old songs I had lying around. Oh if you can’t abide classic rock or or southern rock don’t click! I swear I don’t try to have a southern rock flavor, that’s just what comes out.

Well, I did not know that posting the link would do that. 🙂 But I’ll take what I can get, especially if it works. I uploaded that song a short time ago and already have 2 followers and 7 plays lol. (that third follower got me right after I made the account a month or two ago)

 

11.10.16
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So Are You Vaping?

If you are I suggest you read this:

https://www.dri.edu/newsroom/news-releases/5437-hazardous-chemicals-discovered-in-flavored-e-cigarette-vapor

Long story short the aerosols in vape juice contain, and I quote “dangerous levels of hazardous chemicals known to cause cancer in humans.”  Another quote: “One puff of any of the flavored e-liquids that we tested exposes the smoker to unacceptably dangerous levels of these aldehydes, most of which originates from thermal decomposition of the flavoring compounds.”

The breakdown of the vape juice during the rapid heating process creates these aldehydes. (think formaldehyde) From the story it looks to me like they did a respectable scientific study. Being an ex cigarette smoker I have to wonder how many people will respond with the old line “we gotta die from something!”

Vaping is as bad as regular old tobacco folks. Maybe worse. What makes this even more troublesome is the fact that a lot of kids are vaping these days. One of my boys went through a phase, I’m glad he walked away from it. I like to think my influence helped him do so. I kept telling him “you don’t know what the hell you are putting into your lungs, this stuff is too new and no testing has been done.” Well the tests are in.

I’d like to think my influence might help someone else walk away from this habit too. Let’s all just die of old age instead of tobacco/chemical caused cancers and breathing problems such as COPD. Or from the nukes fired at us because of Trump…   😉

 

11.09.16
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Are You Kidding Me? They Elected The Great Orange Pumpkinhead?

I do hereby disassociate myself from the segment of society (morons) that would vote Trump into the White House. I really want to say fuck Trump and fuck the idiots that voted for him. But that would take a while apparently.

I went to bed early last night. I saw the trend, I am sick to my stomach. I am a tad depressed. I am feeling like my dog died. This is an enormous tragedy for our country. A tragedy for the the people. A tragedy for the entire world.

All I can think right now is if there is a wall built, I want to be on the other side of it.

 

10.29.16
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I Don’t Know…

What do you guys and gals think? I am a capable lead guitar player in the classic rock and southern rock genre, I spotted this ad in my local Craigslist:

Looking for lead guitar player 

Established Contemporary Christian / Christian Rock band looking for a lead guitar player. We are a group of characters that have the common goal of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ through music. We do outreach events, youth rallies, community and church events.

Qualifications:
1) Have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
2) Committed in your spiritual walk.
3) Be free of addiction
4) Regularly attend church
5) Possess a servant’s heart
6) Possess musical skill to recognize pitch, tone, balance and dynamic variance.
7) Be able to blend your musical gift with the rest of the band.
8) Music proficiency does not automatically make you a good candidate for the band.
9) Your conduct should be above reproach and never give the appearance of evil.

If interested please submit the following information:

Name:
Age:
Experience:
Email:
Phone:   end quote/

I’m pretty sure I am not going to meet their requirements… Number 3 and numbers 6/7 maybe (unless you count coffee and my pain meds an addiction), but the rest is just not happening. I honestly am having trouble believing anyone can meet these standards. Especially x-ians!
10.27.16
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Delusion, No Religion Lives Without It

I saw a headline yesterday I could not ignore, it was “Allah Wants ISIS To Retreat.” I visited the link and no surprises really, deluded religious fanatics acting delusional. Apparently the recent defeats are just part of the trials and tribulations of the faithful. I quote:

“It is not that God has ceased to favor the Islamic State, for that is of course inconceivable. Rather, divine favor comes with ups and downs. It is God’s practice to subject His creation to trials and tests, as He subjected the prophets and the early Muslims before our time.”

Allrighty then…

Like I said, deluded fanatics acting delusional. I only hope that ISIS is dealt a crushing defeat with a minimal loss in civilians and military personnel. I also can hope that the driving force behind ISIS and every other irrational murderous act carried out on behalf of the gods dies with the religion that inspires it. Sooner would be better than later.

My initial discovery of this headline took me to a site that quickly nagged for a subscription, this site carries the same story without the nagging. EDIT: If you click the “read more” icon at this link, it will carry you to the original story, the page that nags. Well when I say nag I mean actually hold you hostage until you subscribe, which is pretty shitty IMO.

http://www.thenewscommenter.com/news/allah-wants-isis-to-retreat/650991

10.19.16
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Water Miracles

So I’m sitting in the library…

My son had some homework to do. It required putting together a PowerPoint presentation and we do not have PowerPoint. The computers at the library were the obvious choice right after I decided that it wasn’t worth the download for a one time use. At least I hope this is a one time issue. We all know how that goes.

So after the trials and tribulations of getting to the library, it was a trip laced with difficulties that were unforeseeable. My son had lost his library card. We needed a dollar for a replacement card. I hardly ever have cash in my pocket anymore due to the reliance on debit cards. Tried to buy something cheap at the Dollar Store and get some cash back, could not read my debit card. Tried with a credit card, could not get cash back on it! Finally went to a damn ATM and pulled 20 bucks out so I could pay for a one dollar library card! Are we having fun yet??! Nothing in my life, even the acquisition of one stinking dollar, is never as easy as it should be.

Anyway by now you must be wondering how this all ties in to the title of the post. We finally got the library card squared away, my son was able to use the library computer and I had some time to kill. Being in a library, I wisely sought something to read to occupy my time. I found some Popular Science magazines that piqued my interest and started with my page turning enjoyment.

I got to the end of an issue and there was a 2 page advertisement for some device that will deplete the deuterium from your water! And it has all kinds of health benefits! I found this quackery in a Popular Science mag? I guess they will take any old crackpots money!

Here is a link I found that has much of the same wording as the advertisement I came across. It is good for a laugh, there is even some reference about this miracle device fulfilling biblical prophecy, which makes it much more believable (I know…right?) They also go on about the angle of the hydrogen bond in the treated water and how it can save a foot in need of amputation, supposedly grow hair on a bald scalp, and apparently kills Ebola! And much much more! :

Home

I thought about debunking this crap but then found a page that had already done the legwork. The guy at this link goes to great lengths debunking all kinds of new age nonsense and there is a lot of it unfortunately. Some people do have such open minds that their brains fall out and their wallets are magically lightened.  🙂

http://www.chem1.com/CQ/johnellisbunk.html

Amazing how much fun you can have at the library, well with your clothes still on!  🙂

10.10.16
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Clean Coal My A**

I watched the horrid debate last night, if I wasn’t already disgusted with Trump his performance would have pushed me in that direction. But that’s another story for another day. I want to discuss something I keep hearing from Trump. Trump and the R’s in general keep buzzwording “Clean Coal” and how the emission restrictions enacted by the Obama administration are hurting jobs and the economy. Every time I hear this schtick the words that pop into my head are “what about the environment jackass!?” Sometimes I think it so loudly people sitting in the room can hear me 🙂

Clean coal, (There are several processes of supposedly cleaning coal. The one I am describing is cited as the most hopeful in my limited research) is a process where they scrub CO2 from the coal smoke, run it into a solvent that absorbs the CO2, then gasify the solvent at high heat, thereby releasing the CO2, then pressurizing it and disposing of it through deep well injection into sandstone or depleted oceanic oil deposits. Sounds simple enough, right?

Well not so fast. Even with this very expensive technology, and its very high operating demand, (as much as 25-30% of a coal plants output) with the current tech and actual (now no longer operating) operating facilities, they were only capturing a few hundred tons of CO2 per day. This when an average coal plant emits 5000 tons of CO2 per day!

American Electric Power, a large power company I believe based in Ohio, built their test facility at their Mountaineer plant in W. Virginia. They did a proof of concept run (between Oct 2009 and May 2011), that shows they can make coal cleaner, but the cost and the inneffeciency has proven in the long run that clean coal is a myth. Such a low carbon capture rate compounded by extreme costs, and extreme power consumption, led to them shelving the notion of large scale expansion. (they blamed uncertain regulations and the economy, if you are interested see the second link at the bottom of this post.) Also the long term storage of any sequestered CO2 is questionable at best. Who can gurantee this stored CO2 will stay where it is put? Who wants to take the heat when something goes wrong 20 years down the road?

No one is making clean coal today and damn well likely not tomorrow either.

The notion of clean coal is an oxymoron. They can make coal cleaner than it is, but not by a large enough percentage to make a noticeable dent in our CO2 footprint. Clean coal is nothing more than buzz word pandering to voters in coal states, and a political fantasy. At least with todays technology.

Until someone comes up with an economic coal cleaning plan that reduces carbon emissions by at least 50% I think they are chasing their tails. Chasing tails while amusing, in this case adds up to many millions if not billions of wasted dollars. See here:

That link is about a new clean coal plant in Mississippi. It was supposed to be the latest greatest cleanest coal plant ever. However at this time it has become mired in cost overruns and piss poor management. Thanks to a whistle blower much of the problems came to light. Now if and when they can get this plant operational and show their actual numbers I’ll be glad to reconsider my notion of the high improbability of anything resembling clean coal at this time in our history.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a4947/4339171/

http://www.aep.com/newsroom/newsreleases/?id=1704

 

 

10.04.16
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Trump Would Get My Vote…

If he was running for sewage inspector.

I just heard on my local news that Trump is carrying my home state of Tennessee in the polls. Another of many good reasons to move the hell out of here and leave these crosseyed jeebus loving rednecks to their own devices, and their sisters.

In all of my years, and there have been a few, I can’t remember a presidential election that was this terrible. I mean yes, it’s almost always a choice between a douche bag and a shit sandwich (South Park reference) but this year it isn’t just that. It is a choice between a fricking reality TV character who is rich beyond our wildest dreams, a bigot, a racist, a misogynist, a liar, a fraud, a tax adjuster, a con man, a bully, a compulsive nitwit, the list just gets longer every day. And, a career politician who just happens to be female, wife of a former president, a democrat, and for many reasons I don’t even understand given these circumstances, not all that popular with the general public.

I really feel of the choices, and I agree they are both not that great… One of these people is worse than the other for our country, for our people, and the world at large, by an order of many magnitudes. I’m not going to say who, I think most of us can figure that out.

But the thing is I am left wondering, who in the hell in their right mind, thinks Trump is going to do anything to better our country? Given his character I can tell you the only thing he would accomplish is to further divide the gap between the wealthy and the not so wealthy. He would stack the deck so that he and other rich cronies like himself will be laughing all they way to the bank for the next millenia. That is if he doesn’t go whacko and make the U.S. the new Nazi state (“papers please”) or decide on a tweet that it’s a great idea to nuke everybody.

Are my wife and I, and a few of my blogging pals the only people who can see this? Where are the rest of us? Why in the hell is Trump carrying any state in the polls? How the fuck can this even be happening in a sane and rational world? Am I going to wake up in the morning and be told it was all just a new episode of the Twilight Zone? Please, please, please, let that be the case. I don’t think there is enough alcohol in the state of Tennessee to console myself and the wife if Trump wins this. I don’t think it will really happen, but this is so bizarre I am having trouble ciphering between reality and some dark bizzaro world fantasy.

Help Me! Send booze! Send money! I may need to move to Canada with Nan!