Pilot's Log

Nobody won Powerball so the Grand Prize is now almost $340 Million.

...Because suddenly there's less on TV than there was just a while ago.

A Knoxville station went from being a RetroTV affiliate to an independent this week. Which means that they have less content to show and are showing a lot more infomercials. Retro was just barely keeping me interested; I'm taking that channel out of the queues for the TV sets.

January: My best wishes to all my readers for this and every coming new year.
February: I don't know what I despise more...Having to watch my bandwidth like a hawk knowing that to stay under the limit I'll probably have to live without Internet for a few days in the middle of the month, or...Having the DNS server suddenly drop off for a couple hours at a time every so often.
March: Not the first time something like this has happened.
April: Come on now, Who do you, who do you, who do you, who do you think you are?
May: Blue Gender.
June: While I was asleep this morning, one of our family friends, Jessica, was here picking up a dozen eggs that Dad had gotten her from a nearby farm as per their usual arrangements.
July: My wishlists are a known quantity.
August: Yes, there are times when exercizing a fantasy is more satisfying than outright making reality of it.
September: I'd had a suspicion that the mockup fighter jet in DEAL OF THE CENTURY was based on a Learjet, and I'm still looking for harder evidence.
October: Channel 7-2 in Knoxville just tweaked their schedule again.
November: Well, after that incident in Morristown in which I heard some really nasty noises come from Moonshine's underside last week, Dad and I scrambled to find a repair shop to get her back to rights.
December: Over the weekend was the local IPMS club's Swap Meet, and I got several kits for very very cheap.

I know I've been much quieter than normal lately. I guess I'm under a more covert, sublime form of depression as opposed to the usual demoralization. At this point, I'm of a mind that just letting it run its course, and not fighting it with self-medication, is the best of my few and far-between options.

I'm loathe to plunge into clearing out Mum's desk, even though it's been a month already. Is it understandable that I don't necessarily want to make that hole in my life that much bigger right away? I'll get it done...but I want to get it done right. I guess I said that before.

I took the battery pack out of Mum's 1999-vintage Rocket e-book reader; it hadn't held a charge for years and it's likely becoming a fire hazard. I'll have to see if it could function without the battery, and if the data is safe on it. If so, I'll replace the battery when I've got the money for one. (If not I'll probably salvage the screen for my flight simulation cockpit dashboard.)

Dad sold his Buick to my niece for $1 yesterday. He's got his Nissan truck now, so that may be his last motor vehicle. Depends on if he can still see well enough to drive after his eye surgery, which is still yet to be scheduled.

I was disappointed with the Indy 500 and the NASCAR race in Charlotte yesterday, even though the latter was the better of the two. Didn't get to see anything from Monaco, but I hear that the Red Bull team is being a bunch of sore winners.

Radiolab did a very good program on Artificial Intelligence; I heard it overday.

As I'm sure I said before, there is little in the way of problems that an AI could solve better than a human being as yet. Tho' I was thinking of one possibility.

Suppose a Cleverbot-variety AI were to go through your existing canon of social media output. Every face, space, tweet and blog. Every text, pic and vid. And then it would find "keys" in that content and ask you about them. Perhaps get to to think about why you say what you say. Maybe find your psychological or social "blind spots" and help you work through them.

Mom passed on today just before 1PM local time. She had taken a bad turn overnight. I was with her at the end, along with a family friend who is also a retired nurse. I don't think I'll get into details here, and if I'm out of circulation for the next few days I hope you'll understand.

She's better today but it's a steep and unsteady climb. She'll have to stay in the ICU at least another day, more likely two, and then a regular hospital bed at least a day after that. They need to stabilize her blood pressure and bring her platelet and white blood cell counts back up before anything else can be done for her.

I'm handling this about as well as a dull wolf like myself can.

"Everyone, attack!"

No, not really. We did have the Regional Convention, and I am NOT going to Charlotte. I'm happy for the five actual delegates to the DNCC, who are all very deserving. Especially a 19-year-old man named Jota; if there is any justice the media could make a star of him.

I sat beside Mike Dockery there; he is our County party chairman and he's running for office. He told me that if I were serious about going to the 2016 Convention, he would help me with the proper paperwork and networking. It's far too early to think about that yet, tho'.

...Whatever Flag They Offer--Mike & The Mechanics, "Silent Running"

I went to the local Democratic Party convention here today, just on an impulse to learn about it, and wound up becoming the official Delegate for my neighborhood. In two weeks, I'll go to the Regional convention and find out if I'll be going on to the National convention in Charlotte this summer.

Why? I've already got the card and they were short-handed by three people.

Going to a political national convention has been on my bucket list since childhood. I imagine my chances of going are slim but I still want the chance.

If I go, I'll bring you along somehow. Dunno just how, as yet, but I'll figure it out. I usually do.

One of a number of forged Bonds seized in a bank fraud case.