Tag: This ‘N’ That

13JAN2023 – This’N’That

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It’s been a busy week and that plays havoc with my various schedules.  I’ve of late drawn up a list of things I try to get done at various times of the day and week.  C’est la guerre.  But all in all, things are still moving along.  And my morale is reasonable.  So onward and upward.

I see that Dopey Joe has stepped in it with both feet with this document thing.  Of course, he’ll get the Democrat treatment so there won’t be any consequences but it does make the hypocrisy of what they’re trying to do to Trump even more egregious.  Good.  Hammering home all the corrupt aspects of the banana republic we now live in is probably the only useful function that the GOP and the small independent media can perform.

I spent some time at a Selectman’s Meeting and saw what an actual government is supposed to be working on; trying to find the money to pay for a new piece of fire fighting equipment to replace one that was end-of-life twenty-five years ago or finding money to pay for Emergency Medical Services that we lost through the incompetence of the state we live in.  The people at this meeting weren’t wearing three-piece suits or sipping lattes.  They were in work boots and jeans.  And they looked tired.  They have real jobs but they work in the evenings keeping the town government going even though they’d like to quit.  But then it would be done by really terrible people.  It’s not fun being a red town in a blue state.  Well, I got some inspiration at least.  And I met some good people.  They don’t resemble the mythical First Selectman Cthulhu or the other hapless denizens of Dunwich but I can still use them as inspiration.

I’ll have to think about the Biden humor pieces I started doing yesterday.  It was brought up that’s it’s devilishly difficult to parody a president as awful as Dementia Joe.  His lying is so epic that it’s hard to see how I can outdo it.  And he’s so creepy in real life that even documenting it raises concerns over matters of good taste on a general audience website.  So, I’ll try to ensure that I create a product that is both entertaining and true to the spirit of our “Dear Leader.”  I will admit that I had a bit of fun writing it.  Biden is such a hapless loser when he tries to justify himself that I can’t help but laugh when I mock him.  And there’s so much fodder to work with.  Anywhere you stick a shovel you hit paydirt.  I could probably do a whole post just on his use of the term, malarkey.  So, we’ll see how it goes.

Seeing how annoyed all the lefties were about the outcome in the House of Representatives I have to conclude that the whole thing was a net positive.  Maybe Kevin McCarthy even learned something about dealing with free people.  Now we’ll have to see if any of the changes being instituted make a difference or whether the Republicans just roll over and obey Biden, Schumer and the vested interests who donate to their war chests.  Still, I did think there was value in seeing a little real insurrection in the House.

Well anyway, here’s to the beginning of a good weekend.  And hopefully I’ll have more to show real soon.

20NOV2022 – OCF Update – This’N’That – Of Mice and Math

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Sunday, the day of rest.  A good day to regroup and sets things in order for the upcoming week.  Especially this week.  Had a blast with the old grandsons yesterday.  Fun outing, good food.  Got home and skipped dinner.  Skipped all food and drink and maybe that was a mistake.  I was still recovering from that virus that was in the house the last couple of weeks.  But I figured I could skip the cold meds.  Big mistake!  Woke up at 4:30 am with a splitting sinus headache.  So, I beat a hasty retreat to the cold medicine and then sat up for a half hour to let it knock down my sinus inflammation.

But today I’m definitely on the mend.  So, I spent time working on minutia.  I’ve been using the Logitech M570 Wireless Trackball Mouse as my pointing device for the last six or so years.  It’s a great device in most ways.  But unfortunately, the switches for the left and right click buttons give out after a couple of years.  So now I have three of these things that double click when they shouldn’t.  I finally looked into the problem and found a YouTube video that shows how to replace the microswitches and eliminate the problem.  Now I’ll have to buy a soldering iron and some other bits of gear and become a technician.  Well, that’s kind of fun.  Plus, I’ll fix the other two mice and become mouse anti-fragile for the foreseeable future.  Yeah me.

The other thing today was about was to delve into vector analysis.  I never had the time back in the day to play around with the more advanced theorems to get a solid handle on the tensor notation.  In the past I’ve been exposed (as if to a disease) to Del Notation, Dyadics, the Laplacian and equally complex concepts.  The Kronecker delta and how to expand the determinant was something I had to memorize in order to solve some problems in physics.  But if I’m being honest there was very little comprehension on my part at the time as to how these manipulations made sense.  Now I’ve got some time I think I’ll take another whack at it.  The question as to whether I still have sufficient brain cells to thread my way around it and whether those brain cells can retain it remains to be seen.  But it might be fun.

So, amid my other occupations I’ve added electronic technician and math student.  That should make Thanksgiving week an interesting time.  Maybe I’ll buy the microswitches and soldering iron on Black Friday and get some huge discount.  I’ll probably also have to buy some kind of giant magnifying glass on a flexible arm just to see the attachment points for the switches.  It’s a pity I can’t purchase new eyes too.  But once again, the future we were promised all those years ago before Blade Runner hasn’t quite materialized yet.  Well, no need to get all whiny about it.  Magnifying glass works too.

So here we go into Thanksgiving Week.  Turkey, gravy, stuffing, pumpkin pie, old movies and family.  What’s better than that?

Happy Halloween 2022 – This’N’That

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The last day of October is cool, bright and breezy.  Camera Girl is out and about returning a DVD player that I bought that didn’t work and as it turned out we didn’t need.  I’m supposed to be filling out an asset statement for a business I’m starting but it’s so boring I can’t keep my concentration on it for more than thirty seconds at a time.

We’ve got a bunch of Hersey’s chocolate bars and M&M candy bags ready in case the grandkids show up in their costumes.  Living out in the boondocks where there are no sidewalks means no actual trick or treaters ever show up at our Halloween bedecked door (ah well).

Camera Girl has been feasting me of late on a number of soup recipes that she’s been playing around with.  She made a minestrone with escarole added in.  She has a split pea and sausage soup and later on this week there should be a chicken and butternut squash soup on the stovetop.  These soups are splendiferous and are partially responsible for me not falling into despair over the pathetic condition of our fallen republic.  It’s almost as if these soups are an antidote to Joe Biden.

Tomorrow I have to report for duty on the election and I will be assigned the most important tasks; probably sharpening pencils and placing tape on the floor.  If nothing else it should be interesting to see just how fouled up elections are in Dunwich.

The hubbub over Musk taking over Twitter is interesting.  If nothing else it will make news blackouts less effective.  For instance, when Pelosi’s husband was “attacked” there were a lot of sources on Twitter commenting that the whole thing didn’t add up.  Even Musk hinted that maybe Pelosi’s attacker might not have broken into the house but been let in by someone there.  Before the sale Twitter might have made it a policy to delete any tweets that suggested this or even closed the accounts of those who tweeted it.  But now it’s out there for everyone to read and laugh about.  So when Joe Biden tries to tell us that somehow this is January 6th all over again the mockery overflows.

I was on my weekly zoom with the coffee walk guys and the idea of the San Francisco Militant Nudist as MAGA extremist was just too much.  They were laughing so hard they were practically crying.  The jokes about the exact nature of the hammer went on way too long.  The consensus was that Old Paul was in a dispute over Terms of Service.  He may have exceeded his milage limit or something and didn’t want to incur any extra charges.  Customer service is a dying art.

Then the conversation turned to the elections and I complained that the way things are looking I might not have an excuse to give up on the Republicans yet.  One of the guys pointed to a few pretty good candidates and told me to suck it up and hope for the best.  I have to admit there are some tiny rays of light out there.  Lake is a good example.  So I kind of grudgingly agreed.

This is going to be a busy next week and more.  But it could also be filled with interesting occurrences.  Who knows, Joe might even start a war.  But I think we’re all hardened to whatever outrages the Biden machine will commit.  So Joe, “send in the clowns.”

03OCT2022 – OCF Update – This’N’That

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I find the increasingly surreal reality around me both dizzying and slightly depressing.  So, I’m trying to distract myself from it with more pleasant subjects.  Last week I started listening to some of Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen.”  Unfortunately, the library I’m borrowing it from didn’t have the entire four opera set (Sir George Solti’s version) available.  In fact, all they’ve sent me so far is the third opera, Siegfried.

As promised, there are a lot of people singing at each other in German with extremely powerful voices and what seem like lots of emotional problems.  I confess that my lack of German is hampering my appreciation of the dialog but I found many of the melodic parts of the soundtrack very stirring.  I was disappointed that the library didn’t send me Die Walker (“The Valkyrie”).  I’ve always admired the Bugs Bunny version where Elmer Fudd sings along to the “Flight of the Valkyrie” with the magnificent refrain “kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit.”  It seemed the height of musical sophistication at the time.  So far, the experiment has been amusing.  We shall see how it develops.

After watching “The Northman” I’ve decided to review some of the other versions of the play, Hamlet.  I’ve been a fan of Olivier’s version but I think I want to watch Gibson’s and Branagh’s versions again.  One of the only advantages that Branagh’s version had is that it’s comprehensive.  Olivier left out the characters of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and although I see why he did it (time constraints) I do miss those sections.  Next summer I’ll try to attend a live performance of Hamlet somewhere.  There used to be a Shakespeare company in the Berkshires of Massachusetts that I sometimes attended.  They were pretty good.  I’ll have to see if they still exist and find out if they’re covering Hamlet next year.  If not I’m sure some place in New England there is a production.  After all it’s supposed to be the best play by the best playwright in the English language.  Surely someone is still doing it.  My only fear is that it will be exuberantly woke and all the characters will be wheelchair-bound transgender vegans.  That’s bound to take away from the dueling scene.

My scorecard for the November elections is kind of encouraging at the moment.  It seems like the Democrats are trying to psych themselves up.  There’s lots of talk about all these women who registered to vote and all the passion about abortion.  But there is a definite sense that even people like Chuck Todd sense a shellacking in the making.  Losing the House is already a foregone conclusion.  And it’s starting to look like the Senate will also go to the Republicans although whether it will be one seat or a handful is hard to say.  What with Mitch McConnell actively working against some of the Republican candidates it’s hard to figure exactly how the numbers will pan out.  Mitch really is an awful man to have as an ally.  But even he may not be enough to throw the Senate to the Dems while Creepy Uncle Joe is undermining what’s left of Western civilization.

As for the Ukraine war, well that rolling disaster is just another example of the dysfunctional Deep State tampering with the world as if it were their personal Frankenstein’s laboratory.  There seems to be no end to their appetite for destruction.  But this one may be the payoff.  I get the feeling even the Germans have had enough winning.  They’re going to go on a low temperature, low power diet this winter and maybe even these true believers may finally say enough.  Who knows, even their died in the wool Greens may beg for some nuclear power this winter when their toes freeze off.

Well anyway, that’s what’s going on today.  I hope your week has begun well.

This’N’That on Thursday

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Sunday is the family jollification (or shindig) so I have once again been a virtual serf to Camera Girl.  She had me getting the pool and the pool accoutrements brought up to her standards.  This involved extraordinary amounts of cleaning, water chemical treatment and just plain stoop labor.  Then I had to sweep and clean the deck and first floor and organize all the “stuff” that would be in the way.  In many ways she is reminiscent of Ivan the Terrible with her fondness for the cat-o-nine-tails and branding iron.  But somehow I have performed the herculean tasks she set me and I now can look around at the happenings of the day and see if I have anything salient to opine.

With respect to the school shootings in Uvalde the Left, as expected, has lived down to expectations and beat the gun control drum endlessly.  Beto O’Rourke has demonstrated his vile self-serving callousness by crashing a meeting for the grieving town of Uvalde to grandstand his stupid gun control act.

An interesting phenomenon seems to be occurring.  It looks like the usual leftist press outrage over mass shootings or abortion don’t seem to have the usual Republicans panicking as they typically do.  I think the public is outraged out and even the spineless GOP cowards are figuring it out.  When you have inflation emptying your bank account and crime running rampant in the streets it’s hard to come up with additional outrage to care about the New York Times’ talking points on some tragedy.  So even though the Left is trying to talk themselves into some kind of narrative where Roe v. Wade plus school shootings equals salvation for the Dems in the mid-terms I don’t think the polls are even budging.  Good.

I noticed that Dementia Joe’s Approval Rating has taken another hit.  On Tuesday Reuters had him at 36% Approve / 59% Disapprove.  The Real Clear Politics average (below) has him at  40.5% Approve / 55.2% Disapprove.  And that’s because even NPR has him 40% / 56% and Politico has him 42% / 56%.  These are in the tank fellow mouthpieces for Biden and even they have to admit he’s despised by the country.

My theory is that when his approval rating stays below 35% for a month there will begin to be a move by the Dems to find his replacement.  But to be fair I’m sure they’ll wait till after the mid-terms before they start baying for his blood.

 

Polling Data

Poll Date Sample Approve Disapprove Spread
RCP Average 5/2 – 5/25 — 40.5 55.2 -14.7
Rasmussen 5/23 – 5/25 1500 LV 42 56 -14
Reuters 5/23 – 5/24 1005 A 36 59 -23
YouGov 5/21 – 5/24 1332 RV 44 51 -7
Politico 5/20 – 5/22 2005 RV 42 56 -14
Harris 5/18 – 5/19 1963 RV 41 55 -14
Quinnipiac 5/12 – 5/16 1421 RV 38 55 -17
Gallup 5/2 – 5/22 1007 A 41 54 -13
NPR/PBS 5/9 – 5/13 1213 RV 40 56 -16
NBC News 5/5 – 5/10 790 RV 42 54 -12
Monmouth 5/5 – 5/9 751 RV 39 56 -17

 

I’m curious to see how Juneteenth goes this year.  I’m guessing it won’t get as much play as last year.  It doesn’t feel like a winner to me and right now the Dems are looking for some wins.  Maybe they’ll rediscover the Fourth of July for some reason and start waving the racist Stars and Stripes.  Should be interesting.

Well, we’ll see what new horrors await us tomorrow.  But I’ve got some fun ahead of me this weekend so I’m sort of content.  See you tomorrow.

19DEC2021 – OCF Update – This’N’That

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You may have noticed a definite lull in posting yesterday.  I had my two older grandsons over for a Marvel Universe Marathon.  We had copious desserts and Camera Girl’s best spaghetti and meatballs and sausage dinner.  I voted for the original Iron Man movie and they added Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Endgame.  Now, considering that “Endgame” clocks in at three hours long, that’s a lot of movies for one day.  But we filled in the time with much witty banter at the expense of the on-screen “heroes.”  The most egregious of the diversity and equity “improvements” was Girl Captain Marvel.  Basically she is Superman with estrogen.  But in addition, the whole girl power agenda was on open display.  And I railed against it most vocally.

But there was still a lot of fun in the movies.  And it was really great to have the kids over for dinner.  We talked about their school situations.  The older fellow is preparing for college and the younger is in high school too.  They have two weeks off for Christmas which is pretty good.  But they were good company for their old grandad and I felt like one of the kids myself.

Omicron continues to look like the variant that couldn’t.  South Africa is a month into the spike and the deaths just haven’t happened.  Based on the new cases data the spike may already be past.  If that is so then I’d say by New Year we will be able to infer that omicron is the endemic benign end state of the COVID-19 virus.  Of course Dementia Joe is desperate to keep this thing going.  And unfortunately, the Sixth Circuit Court just gave him the green light to force large companies to implement the vaccine mandate.  Ah, the horrors of the administrative state.

The train wreck that is the American economy continues to struggle along with “supply chain” holes and rampant inflation punishing the public in a way that is sure to make outrage the dominant emotion in 2022.  And the breakdown in law and order completes the dysfunctional reality of the Biden regime’s profile in a way that is sure to make the midterms truly awful for the Democrats.  Whether the Republicans will be smart enough to use this to their benefit remains to be seen.

Christmas is upon us.  I’ve so far indulged in three of my various versions of the “Christmas Carol” movies.  Highly satisfying.  Camera Girl is serving roast beast this Christmas, her butcher describes the cut as a “spoon roast.”  This is some cut of sirloin beef.  Last time she made one it was very, very good, so I am anticipating “another triumph.”

So have a good day.

Christmas Cooking, Sony A7 III, Sony 90mm f\2.8 macro lens

 

10DEC2021 – OCF Update – This’N’That

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  • Urban Mayors and Prosecutors continue to get called out by their constituencies for the complete breakdown of law and order in their cities.
  • Federal judges continue to put together a patchwork of stays against Dementia Joe’s volley of vaccination mandates.
  • Fauci and company continue to call for a permanent vaccination regime.
  • Polls show Democrat and especially Biden popularity in free fall.
  • Economy mired in runaway inflation and the word recession beginning to be whispered in economic circles.
  • The omicron variant getting closer and closer to being confirmed as the benign end of the COVID-19 nightmare.
  • Jussie Smollett’s jury felt safe to admit reality in their verdict.  I’m sure this pathetic excuse for a man will get off with a slap on his limp wrist.  Even Dave Chappelle knew from the outset that no one could believe this story.  But it is comforting to see that fantasy is starting to recede even in places like Chicago.  Not that it will save these places but it’s comforting in the same way that knowing that gravity will keep the Earth in its orbit.

Yeah, it’s just another Friday.  Well, I did my chores yesterday, moved the snow off the driveways and cleared a few leaves out of the gutters.  Tomorrow’s another grandchild birthday party here with a rematch of the worst pool players under five feet tall.  Should be fun.

I’m freezing my review of Justified Deadly Force at the top row of the site for a while to try to give it the maximum visibility I can.  If anyone wants to link to it I’d really appreciate it.

Hope to get some writing done today so stay tuned.

 

15OCT2021 – OCF Update – This ‘N’ That

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It’s funny.  It seems like even the Left is starting to admit that Biden has made a shambles of the country and maybe some of them are starting to sound kind of scared.  Still too early to say if it will effect the outcome of the congressional votes on the gazillion dollar reconciliation bill.  I assumed that all the skullduggery planned was a done deal.  Maybe I’m wrong.  We’ll have to see.

But we will be going through some extended bad times as I mentioned in my last post.  I’m starting to look at my own finances to see what cutbacks I should make.

I was listening to the ZMan’s Friday podcast.  It was on organizing and near the end he was talking about negativity.  And that clicked for me.  What we do has to be building things and living.  Just fighting our enemies isn’t enough.  It’s too long a battle to just hold your breath till the end.  We need to make our thing about living and enjoying our lives.

I’ve been writing this story about a sniper who is taking revenge against the FBI.  I have to admit it’s a lot of fun writing about revenge.  But I want the story to be embedded in a larger frame about building something bigger than revenge.  I want to have it about building a community that’s hidden within the current United States.  So this fictional story corresponds to how I think about the world I’m living in.  And that is helpful when thinking about real life.  The things I write about are larger than life.  We can talk about underground bases and new technologies and secret organizations but even the little things we do on-line can be positive and enrich our lives.  We talk to people and we share ideas and maybe we help each other solve some problems.  And if nothing else we act as sounding boards for people who don’t have one.

So today I am doing some story plotting and re-writing.  It wasn’t strong enough or tight enough.  I punched it up and cut it down and I like it a lot better.  It’s another beautiful day and I intend to go out and take some photos of the fall.  A couple of days ago one of the dogs found a big old Northern Water Snake sunning itself near one of the gardens.  I got some good shots of it and I will probably put it up later as a post.

Fridays are usually pretty quiet on the site.  I’ll put up a post later.  Maybe I’ll review another season three trek episode.  I’m getting impatient with them but considering Shatner’s recent trek into almost-space I guess I should do my part.

Camera Girl is an inveterate crime drama reader.  She reads about fictional crime fighters like Jack Reacher and Harry Bosch and Jesse Stone.  Well, we recently started watching a tv series about Harry Bosch and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well it’s made.  Not everything is to my taste but it’s a quality series.  So at some point I’ll be reviewing it too but I must keep my nose to the Star Trek grindstone.  Duty is duty.

I’ve been listening to Larry Correia’s podcasts on fiction writing, “The Writer’s Dojo.”  and even though not all of the information is specific to what I do I find the experience of listening to these two writers talking about their mindset when they’re writing to be energizing.  For instance, they were talking about villains recently and it occurred to me I was wasting an opportunity by not beefing up the character of one of my villains.  After all good villains are sometimes even better than the hero.  Look at the Joker in Batman.

And this weekend we’ll have some grandkids coming around and that’s always fun.

So bear with me.  I’ll have some good stuff soon.

08SEP2021 – OCF Update – This’N’That

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First up, the ZMan manages to have a lot of fun with the Theranos fraud trial of Elizabeth Holmes.  And how could you not have fun with it?  With Holmes’ fake baritone voice and the complete collapse of her fake medical device company it has something for everyone on the right to cheer about.

Secondly, although Biden’s poll numbers are still underwater, so far, the Taliban and ISIS-K have somehow neglected to behead any Americans yet.  I attribute this to enormous monetary bribes from Dementia Joe.  But however it’s being done it may prevent Joe from being tarred and feathered by the public.  And I don’t discount the F— Joe Biden phenomenon.  But who knows?  Maybe Biden will survive his term in office.

And finally I noticed that the Delta Variant Spike in Florida and Texas is almost back down to the baseline in early July before it started.  Kudos to DeSantis and Abbott for not panicking.  Hard to say how long the COVID Iron Curtain will remain up in Blue America but just knowing there are areas outside its control is inspirational for us on the inside.

05AUG2021 – OCF Update – This ‘N’ That

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I continue to be impressed by the backbone that Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida is displaying.  The usual suspects in the press and the feds are attacking him tooth and nail and he’s standing his ground remarkably.  I think he’s shown himself to be a savvy politician and someone who will be worth watching going forward.

Great to see that Gavin Newsom is looking like a dead man walking.  Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.  Larry Elder might be an interesting governor for California.  Because of his color it will be inconvenient for the usual suspects to use their usual methods to attack him.  Might be a learning experience for black voters to see a conservative black leader for once.

I’m trying to teach myself some Word Press design techniques to streamline some of the repetitive stuff I do such as the photo and quote of the day posts.  It’s just a matter of making some templates that are easy to use so I can avoid some keystrokes and clicks.  But you know what old dogs and new tricks are like so it is eating into my day.

Rainy, cool weather here in New England but no snow yet so that’s good.  Camera Girl is working indoors today and that means we’ll eventually have to talk to each other which is always dangerous.  She’s very excited about a new shell I bought her for her hermit crab.  I named him Buster Crabbe after the late great star of the classic Flash Gordon serials of the 1930s.  She’s so excited about him moving into the new shell that she wants me to photograph him for posterity.  Don’t be surprised if he shows up here at some point.  I told her I thought he’d be better off as part of a crab sauce over spaghetti.  She was not amused.

Haven’t seen any of the praying mantises for a week or so and I’m wondering if there are many predators in the yard that they have to contend with.  I guess frogs and toads might be the likeliest enemies around the yard.  But maybe even field mice might be a threat.  Next week will be drier and warmer so I’m hoping that I’ll make some further sightings.  Princess Sack-of-Potatoes will be sorely disappointed if they don’t reappear.  Although lately she seems a lot more interested in chasing butterflies.  I guess women of all ages are a fickle bunch.

I saw that Dementia Joe’s poll numbers have finally gone below water.  Of course Politico will put out their own poll that says he’s at 52% so they can claim the average is above 50% but looking at the main pollsters he’s now under water.  And that’s during the August doldrums.  come September when kids will be sitting in sweltering classrooms with masks over their faces I can see those numbers in the low forties.  Oh, Joe’s gonna be awfully popular.  But we’ll see.

The Congress is getting ready to sell us out again.  Joe Manchin has cut his deal.  His wife has been put in charge of a billion dollar slush fund so you can expect that the fix is in.  The Dems will use the reconciliation process to put illegal alien citizenship, statehood for Puerto Rico and DC, permanent election fraud and heaven knows what else into law this fall.  So don’t let yourself get sucked into the miasma of despair they’re preparing.  It’s coming and we need to concentrate on the things we can control ourselves.  And we need to be able to decide where our own long term best interests will be served.  All that will be things to discuss and figure out.

so that’s enough for now.  Stay tuned.