Happy New Year! 2019 to 2020

This is the mandatory Happy New Year! post.  Happy happy 2020; happy goodbye to 2019.

The news in 2019, in review.  Note that these news events are selected arbitrarily, without any consideration for importance to the world around us or interest of the readers - all three of them.

Christmas 2019

I did the obligatory Christmas dinner, which was excellent.  My contribution was a plate of deviled eggs.

Deviled Eggs

The only thing left to do in 2019 was to go out shooting and finish out the day with a cocktail and a board game, which we did yesterday.  Big Mike, California Dave, and I all went to the range.

Obilgatory Merry Christmas Post - 2019

Merry Christmas to all of you reading this.  My best to you and yours!

Plea for Help - Thank You! from Jackie

I set up a GoFundMe page for Jackie Ruth Brown Koson.  Here is a message sent to me from Jackie, which she asked me to share with everyone:

Thank you for setting up a GoFundme page under my name.  I have had tons of medical appointments that will continue for a while.  The good news is that I am now in physical therapy three times a week for the broken foot that I have had since June.  The Doctors discovered a second break which was not initially reported.

The surgery site is healing.  I will need further reconstruction in six months.

I need to maintain a healthy diet for my autoimmune disease.

I went to see my doctor today who told me to go buy scar away silicone patches which will help with further healing along with Vitamin E oil.

I was completely stressed today not knowing how I was going to meet all of the expenses that I have financially.  I came home to a GoFundme check in the mail which I am highly grateful for.

I would like to personally thank all the donors who donated funding.  I can not even put into words how much your donations mean to me.

I am forever grateful!
Warm regards to all,

Jackie Ruth Brown Koson

And there you have it.  The part that matters is not the amount; it's knowing that someone, somewhere cares about your well-being enough to send you a few bucks and maybe a prayer or two.

My sincere and heartfelt thanks to all of you for helping Jackie.

Plea For Help

It hits us all, even the most self-sufficient of us.  A few little things pile up - the truck throws a rod, and a few days later you have a grease fire in the kitchen, then a few days after that you're hauling a load of junk down to the curb for unlimited pickup day, and you step in a gopher hole and break your ankle in three places.  Now you can't work, and you can't get around.  And then?  Then you get cancer.

You Go When Your Number's Up

I came close to cashing in my chips yesterday (Saturday, 10/19/2019), but was saved at the last minute.  Here's the entire story in excruciating detail.

The Return of the Midnight Shooter

We had another visitation from the Midnight Shooter.

Important! Read this one...

If anyone reading this announcement plays games that are slightly more complex than slap jack, keep reading for hilarity that I truly wish I'd had a hand in designing.  For the rest of you, well... at least you can read.  Keep reading.  You'll love it.

Loads of Fertilizer For The Turbine Blades

Most of this is screaming news, the sole purpose of which is to drown out real problems. Let's see what we've got here, and then I'll cite a few problems I think are serious.

Employee Abuse at Google

Take any or all of the top fifty tech companies, and Google will float to the top.  Being bored out of my mind recently, I decided to read Slashdot which is rare for me, and I stumbled over this story about employee abuse at Google.

Evidently, over the past few years, the tyrannical middle management at Google have a zero tolerance policy for whiners and whistle blowers, but there's a bit more to the story than the tip of the iceberg you can see, looming dead ahead in the fog.

Quora Question: Why is there air?

The old Coz knew the answer to that one.  Here's a few answers I posted on Quora, mainly to see how long my insightful if somewhat pithy responses would be tolerated by the overly sensitive Quora censors that protect humanity from people like me.

Of Mice and Mayhem

Wednesday morning (the infamous 9-11) I got ambitious enough to make eggs and bacon for breakfast.  Just for a change of pace, I scrambled the eggs in my small, cast iron skillet.  I inherited this from my great-uncle Clyde, who used it every morning during the depression.

Clyde was a bachelor, preferring the hell of his own making over the excruciating torment delightfully brought on by his one big mistake in life.  The man was content to live alone, and by all accounts was happiest that way.

After breakfast I went out to run some errand or other, and when I returned what should I find?  A nice, big field mouse helping itself to the leftover eggs in my skillet, which I'd thoughtfully left on the stove just for him.  The cute little pestilence would hop into the skillet and get some eggs, then hop out and hide under the skillet.

Right next to the burner.

Joke Time

God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael, the archangel, found him, resting on the seventh.

"Where have you been?" Michael asked.

Banned Words

All kinds of words have been banned over the years.  The first word that comes to my mind is antidisestablishmentarianism, but that's probably just me.  I'm a bit odd.

On my previous contribution to the overall knowledge of mankind, a casual reader delurked a left a single, succinct suggestion.

When you use the phrase "gun control" you cede most of the ground to The Enemy, who created that phrase for just that purpose. Use "disarming the law-abiding" because THAT is what is under "discussion" (a term you should also reject).

My thanks to Lens Larque for an excellent suggestion.

Beginning today, the phrase gun control will no longer appear in any of my posts.  Instead, I'll use disarming the law-abiding public.  I'll have to find something else to replace discussion with.  Something on the order of "unwarranted attack" comes to mind.

Comments may, of course, use whatever language the author of the comment sees fit.

Shootings and Solutions

Well, unless you've been incommunicado for the past week, you know all about the two new mass shootings that have the anti-freedom crowd frothing at the mouth.

Kicking around the Internet, I found one blogger who got it right, and who is worth reading.

Keep going, with the standard disclaimer about special little snowflakes and thin skinned moonbats getting their cute little hides branded.

My Interesting Life - 7/26/2019

Yesterday, while minding my own business, I missed getting into a traffic accident by ten feet or so, then I saw some poor little kid get punched out and decked by an adult while at my local Kroger's.  Here's my rant, complete with racist, misogynist, misandrist, and politically incorrect and callous comments.

All you special little snowflakes and SJWs better plug your ears and blind yourself with number two pencils before continuing.

Joke Time!

I thought this was a good one, but naturally it's a bit off color.  Continue at your own risk.

Black Plague, Los Angeles Homeless, and a Crapcopter with a Flamethrower

That last should get Glen Filthie, owner and operator of Filthie's Thunderbox , started right up.  You see, Glen has been having an argument with the boys in the Treehouse Club about drones and low yield nuclear devices, Vulcan Cannons, and the end of the world as ISIS would like to know it.

Then there's Los Angeles and the brand knew revelation by a cartoonist and a noteworthy doctor that, surprise-surprise, L.A. is going to be facing a very serious health crises in the near future.

Keep reading for my politically incorrect rant, which is guaranteed to anger and activate any and all special little snowflakes in a sixty mile radius.  The drone argument is at the end.

SJWs Reach a Brand New Low

I broke my toes on an empty case of bourbon, fell into my office chair and multi-fingered the keyboard for about three eternities.  When I was able to see again, I found myself staring at Quillette, and the article Publicly Shaming a Musician for Calling a Composition by Its Name by Kurt Gottschalk.  It looked interesting.

The SJWs are still at it, this time in Nova Scotia.  The event was a gathering of... well, I better insert the standard warning before I continue, because I'm going to get nasty.  If you're an SJW, continue at your own risk.

Plight of the Children and Others

I saw this on... okay, somewhere.  I think it's incredibly stupid, and for any of you who want to know why I find it incredibly stupid, keep reading.  The rest of you can keep surfing.

Did You Know?