Christmas "Music"

Christmas "Music"

As the commercialization of Christmas encroaches upon more and more of the year, one of the most obnoxious things to me is the insistence that most places have on playing "Christmas Music." Of course, the issue here is that so much of the so-called Christmas Music simply isn't. I used to consider it more an irritation at violation of seasonal boundaries - let's actually celebrate Thanksgiving first - but now I'm sure it's more of the content. I have no problem with playing or listening to "We T…

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"Truth" - False Narratives, Self Defense, Wisdom, and Kyle

"Truth" - False Narratives, Self Defense, Wisdom, and Kyle

The Rittenhouse trial is over, as is the McMichaels trial, and we are now looking at the trial for the Daunte Wright shooting. While he'll never live a normal life, or likely work a normal job again, I'm glad Kyle was acquitted. I'm disappointed, but understand to a degree why, that he's giving interviews instead of taking time to get himself together. I also don't blame him in saying something along the lines that we can all agree on Black Lives Matter.  He's young, and as I'…

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Musical Interlude of Doom

Musical Interlude of Doom

I've never really been a doom metal fan. Sure, I'm familiar with a few Sabbath tracks, but that band, nor the genre in general, never stuck with me. Then a friend of mine linked me to "Tears Like Diamonds" In case the vid doesn't show properly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jv0qyEnrX8 OK - fantasy metal, and it had me hooked. So I listened to the rest of the album, and got hooked on that too, particularly Dreamthieves. So I dug around some more, and found a video for "Used…

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Chili

Chili

Before we get started. One - yeah, I know, "a proper chili doesn't have beans". Or tomatoes. My memories of Texas being from before Kindergarten, and decades ago, I'll stick with what I learned. Also - as food gets more expensive, having some beans/etc. to stretch the dish helps a lot. Second, as you likely noticed before, I don't do the long story of how much whichever recipe means to me, etc. - I hate looking up recipes on pages like that. Third - I like to give a baseline for…

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Models and Truth

Models and Truth

I learned an importan lesson long ago in physics class. On the blackboard, the teacher drew a picture of an atom similar to the one below: He then asked if that was the correct model of the atom. We, being know-it-all college students, said no. So he drew up an orbital model we'd seen in discussing chemical reactions. Again- correct? Again - no. And so on. After a few different versions, he stopped, and said we were all wrong. He then explained why. None of the models on the board were tru…

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