bookmark_border“Help, help, I’m being repressed”
Month: January 2020
bookmark_borderPeople sometimes lie to avoid appearing dishonest
“Our findings suggest that when people obtain extremely favorable outcomes, they anticipate other people’s suspicious reactions and prefer lying and appearing honest over telling the truth and appearing as selfish liars.”
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/30/health/lying-to-seem-honest-reputation-wellness/index.html
People are funny.
bookmark_borderSCA Portrait
Here’s a picture of me from our Baronial 12th Night event wearing a Kataginu Kamishimo of mostly new-for-2020 garb.
I’m wearing a kataginu vest and hakama pants in matching blue linen, printed cotton kosode, white linen kosode, white linen kyahan shin covers, black linen tate eboshi hat, and purchased jika tabi shoes. Sagemono belt-hangers are a belt favor of the three baronial orders to which I have been inducted (Order of Copernicus, Order of the Blue/Silver Comet, Order of the Gold Comet) and a kinchaku made from the same black silk brocade as my elevation garb which has been machine embroidered with a Laurel wreath.
bookmark_borderKunz Glue Scraper
Every once in a while, somebody lends you a tool to use, and using that tool elicits the reaction, “Where has this tool been my entire life?” Such a tool is the Kunz Glue Scraper .
“This is not,” as I said to Mr. Arimoto, “a tool for delicate work.” When you’re gluing wood together, a certain amount of glue “squeeze” out is all but inevitable. You can swab it, you can sand it, you can plane it, or you can cry about it. The right glue scraper, used over a beefy enough work piece, makes the glue chips fly away from your work piece. This long two-handed handle and thick, sharp, steel double-edged blade makes short shrift of your squeeze scraping. This tool means business.
bookmark_borderPaws Up
bookmark_borderWZUM
Pittsburgh has been without a Jazz radio station since Duquesne University sold WDUQ to a bunch of consultants who turned it into a talk radio station.
Now, we have WZUM at 101.1 which was founded by a passel of people from the old WDUQ stable. About jazzin’ time, if you ask me.
bookmark_borderGold Comet
I never posted about my Gold Comet! The Gold Comet, or Comet D’Or, is the service order for the Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands, our local SCA group. apparently, I was given this award while we were out of the country and unable to attend the Agincourt event, but the scroll was bestowed in November at the Harvest Revel meeting.
The scroll reads:
The early morning sun shines its warm rays over field and forest. There among the verdant wood glows the bright gold of a comet for our worthy Ishiyama-Shonagon Gen’tarou Yori’ie. The delicate strands of webs also gleam in the light, bedecked with morning dew. So, too, do his efforst to grow the woodworking guild please us well. For this and his numerous past services to the Barony marche of the Debatable Lands, we brandubh et Hildarun, Baron and Baroness, bestow upon him the Comet D’Or, at Agincourt on the 19th day of October, A.S. LIV.
bookmark_borderKeystone
At the 12th Night celebration of the Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands (the local SCA group), I was inducted into the Order of the Keystone of the Kingdom of Aethelmearc, the order of merit recognizing service.
The scroll reads:
The quiet rabbit shapes wood, building a sound foundation of service upon which our society flourishes. Always stepping forward, Ishiyama serves through representation and organization, helping others learn the crafts of our times. Timothy and Gabrielle, Emperor and Empress of Aethelmearc, see this hard working rabbit, Ishiyama Gen’tarou Yori’ie, and bestow upon him a keystone at BMDL 12th night, January 18, AS 54.
Words by Baroness Isabel Fleuretan
I am deeply grateful to their Majesties Timothy and Gabrielle, those who recommended me for this award, and the two fine artisans who created my award scroll.
bookmark_borderFarewell Canon (and BestBuy)
After (I’m going to say) decades of joy with Canon cameras, scanners, and printers, I am bidding them farewell.
Back in October, I decided to get a new camera before we went to Japan. I bought a new Canon Elph point-n-shoot because the previous two had been real workhorses and high quality equipment. I am thoroughly disappointed in this new one. Its image quality is probably worse than the previous version, its software is sub-par and not nearly as configurable as the previous version, and the camera itself is both larger and less solid. Why switch to a plastic case when metal cases are the main reason the older cameras are so durable?
I know I’m a little behind the curve on leaving separate cameras behind, but there it is. Another loyal customer disappointed and never returning.
Back in November, I broke (physically broke a vital part of the paper path on) my printer/scanner. It was my fault, accidentally feeding a thick items through the printer. I bought a replacement printer/scanner at BestBuy, and it sucked. The build quality was awful and even though the manual said you could feed Legal size paper, though the document scanner, this option was not present in the driver. I exchanged that for more expensive Canon, and even though the scanner driver was better, it was unable to properly print a document. It would get part of the way through a page, then spit out the paper. No error, no nothing, just failure. Scanning would quit part of the way through also.
Best Buy refused the return on the second printer, because I did not buy the extended service plan. So, farewell both Canon and BestBuy. I know I’m a little behind the curve on leaving BestBuy, but there it is. Another loyal customer who stuck with them even as they slid further and further into decline has left, never to return.
Farewell to you both. May you fall into the sea.
bookmark_borderUpdates
The end of Windows 7 support explains why Microsoft has been releasing security updates every other day for the past few months.
WordPress plugins seem to update every few days, making me want to have as few of them installed as possible. Even the ones that are not active demand updates.