Jim’s Comments (group member since Oct 29, 2012)

Jim’s comments from the General Craft & DIY group.

Jim passed 1/7/24. This account will be monitored by either his daughter Erin, or his son James. Do not expect messages back regularly. Here is a message from him:

For the past few years my health has declined, a deadly combination of MAC lung disease (a noncontagious cousin of TB) on top of COPD. I've done everything I could to stop it, but there is no hope of getting better & I've been slowly drowning. At this point my best bet is to stay out of the hands of the medical community which would prolong my suffering to no good purpose. "Do no harm" doesn't mean disallowing death, but they seem to think so. Stupid & heartless. We treat our pets better.

I don't believe in an afterlife, a bit of egotism I'll leave to those who believe in fairy tales. I had my shot at life & really enjoyed it for the most part. I have plenty of regrets, but I've made my peace with them & haven't added any in decades. It took me a while to grow up, but I managed to empty my bucket list. There's nothing I want to do any more than what I have been for the past 20 years. I've been every where I wanted to go, done what I wanted to do save for honing my knowledge & various skills & enjoying life. It's been a good one, so don't mourn for me. I was lucky enough to live in a great country in great comfort during one of humanity's most fascinating periods. New wonders appeared constantly.

Mine have been pretty solid, but I never thought about the color changes. That was a real eye-opener, especially in the situations illustrated. It's not a big deal to me, but I could understand it driving some people nuts.

Oh yes! I have read One Second After. I gave it a 5 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
If you read my review, you'll see some other classic apocalyptic novels listed & I agree this is one of the more probable scenarios. I knew there were at least 2 others after this one, but have no interest in reading them. There's no way they can live up to the standard set by the first one. They can only become standard post-apocalyptic fare.

This one shows in graphic detail just how dependent we are on electricity on all levels & relates them through personal experiences which just hit me in the gut. After reading the blurb, I thought I was prepared, but I was wrong & I've thought about how much I rely on electric a fair amount.

I live in an all electric house now, but grew up in rural areas where service was spotty & not particularly reliable. We didn't have the need either, though. Flashlights & their batteries weren't very good. Most of the barns didn't have electric & power was out fairly often, so we always had plenty of kerosene on hand for the many lamps & lanterns. TVs weren't used all that much since we only got a few stations, at best. We didn't have most of the other electric gadgets I rely on now. No microwaves, cordless phones, or air conditioning. While we had a refrigerator, we still had well coolers & root cellars. The stove was kerosene or gas, too. The kerosene one had a built-in hot water heater. The biggest issue was water had to be hauled in from the well & we usually had an old outhouse to cut down on the need for that, too.

Back then, the electric could go out for days & it was a mild inconvenience, but now it's a disaster. We don't have any of the older things/systems around & all the appliances are electric. We're dependent on things we didn't even dream about back then like the microwave, phone, & computer. It's pretty shocking.

That is interesting. Thanks, Jaye.

How did it only cost you a penny? Looks like fairly standard pricing to me. Is there some sort of sign up deal?

That looks interesting. I recently watched an episode of "The Craftsman" which was good.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15423280/

While our backgrounds aren't anything alike, our work is very similar. He has some really cool old tools, though.

Apparently the FAA mess was just an engineer swapping in the wrong file.

Everyone should probably use a password manager now since you need to use complex passwords that are different for each site, have so many, & use them on both phone & computer. If you don't use different passwords for each site, it's easy to get into more than one & that increases the information they can get. If you don't use complex passwords, most sites won't accept them & they're too easily guessed, but it's impossible to remember for all the sites that need them. Typing complex passwords into a phone sucks.

A password manager makes all of the above easy to do since you just have to remember one complex password to get into it & then it provides the rest on all devices. That usually costs some money, but a little under $50/year seems to be about average. It's worth it both for the hassle & security.

So much of our life is online now that a hacker with access to just a few accounts can destroy a person's life by stealing their identity. I know a gal who had her taxes swiped & that resulted in days of trouble for her over several years. I don't think they ever messed up her credit or emptied her bank account, but that's a possibility, too. It's just scary how much of our lives are on the web & how easy it is to have it go awry.

If you use LastPass, you need to change all your passwords & might want to ditch it for another password manager. They really screwed up by not letting everyone know immediately about the severity & scope of this breach. Way back in August, they knew hackers got in & they mentioned it, but recently it's come out that their entire database was copied.

Wired did a good article explaining the mess & I heartily agree with the last paragraph.
https://www.wired.com/story/lastpass-...

I agree with Jaye. I usually put the ToC into my public review & will note if I haven't fully read the chapter, but at the bottom of the review, hidden under the "details" link, is a section for Private Notes. That might suit you better.

That's cool. They're so handy. I had a lot of trouble finding old ammo cans when I bought this farm 15 years ago. I needed one since I bought a new tractor (lightly used, 125 hours) & they've been the after market toolbox on almost every one that I've used since they're strong & waterproof. I finally found 2 for $5 each at a junk shop & I only used one. The other is still kicking around & occasionally used.

Bad news today - the Brooklyn library is no longer allowing out of state lending. For $50/year, I was getting access to twice as many audiobooks than my local library has. Does anyone know of another big library that allows it?

Interesting, Earl. Thanks.

That's tough with your son. I've read my share of fluff for the same reason. Sometimes rereads are nice. I find a lot of nonfiction even more distracting. Much of the science I learned as a kid has been extended wildly or even overturned.

I just don't get Luddites. My wife & mother both suffer from that in far too many cases. Eventually times have made them cave & start using devices with no real knowledge of how they work so they're constantly frustrated & have to memorize exact instructions for each operation. It frustrates me to no end. for instance, my wife doesn't understand how to use a file system & won't learn. I have a computer hooked to our TV with a lot of media available, but the only way she can use any of it is if someone else finds it for her. Ridiculous.

I like the bluer light in the shop, but more yellow in the house.

No riding anymore, but I haven't been too interested since we had to put Chip down, anyway. It doesn't help that a side effect of one of my inhalers is an enlarged prostate. I usually sit on a donut now. Probably TMI.

That doesn't look like my sort of story. I mostly read nonfiction now & in audio format. I'm currently working on Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors. Just about finished & it's been a hoot.

I've been bitten by that before, too. It varies a little by brand, but you mostly have to look at the 'temperature' of the light. I think it's the same for LED & florescent. Here's a chart which helps a lot.
https://www.ledlightexpert.com/unders...

Pretty much anything from 5000 K up is a white or blue-white. It's gets bluer the higher it gets & yellower below that. A soft white is around 4000 & 3500 looks pretty yellowish to me.

Good to hear from you, Jaye. Life sure does get tougher as we get older. Summers are hotter & winters are colder plus we have all the fun old age issues to deal with.

I haven't been around much either, same issues. My MAC lung disease isn't getting any better even though I spent 3 months with a PICC line giving myself IV antibiotics, so I'm on oxygen a lot now. The hot, humid weather we're having means I can't breath at all outside in the afternoons plus I get dehydrated really easy. I'm not working at all & am on disability.

On top of that, my wife retired & got back surgery she's been needing. Instead of fusing 2 vertebrae, the surgeon wound up doing 6 & she didn't come home in 3 or 4 days as expected, but wound up a full week in the hospital plus another month in rehab. She's home now, but her right leg doesn't work much so she's confined to a wheelchair & walker. I'm doing most of the housework & I'm not really up to it. Thankfully the kids are picking up the slack.

Happy Mother's Day to all. It's also our 40th wedding anniversary. Typical for us, we're celebrating by Marg going to a hunter pace, a kind of a horse show.

Fighting Misinformation: Digital Media Literacy is a short Great Course that everyone should listen to. It's geared toward those who use Facebook & Twitter without understanding the dangers. I gave it a 4 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The New York Times has an article about how a book is printed from keyboard to finished hardback. It's an interesting, complex industrial process.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...