So much for concrete being a heat sink against tornadoes

Posted on March 21, 2022 by Steve

I was going to write about some trivial bullshit which can wait until tomorrow or later because we just had an F2 touch down about two miles north of my house, around 6:30 PM CDT US. Pretty frightening as you can see it tearing through the nearby intersections of I-35 and Toll SH-45 which disproves my belief that  so much concrete is too “hot” for a tornado to touch down. At least what we used to tell ourselves in the very urban areas of the Midwest (Milwaukee, Chicago).

We definitely dodged a huge bullet and we were very lucky. Jennifer was focused on a furniture delivery while I was tuned out to all the Sunday shows I could watch via Hulu without the ads. You’d think it would’ve made much more noise than it did. We didn’t hear crap. The damage reports are continuing to come in from nearby Round Rock. Cars in parking lots were thrown around. A few restaurants and a relatively new indoor waterpark got damaged. I’m confident we’ll know more in the morning as the local news networks will be working furiously to get the detailed reports ready for the geriatric crowd who are still glued to the Weather Channel. I guess this local bad news is a minor relief from the constant barrage of details from Ukraine.

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1922: USS Langley commissioned, the first US aircraft carrier

Posted on March 20, 2022 by Steve

It’s a good thing the US finally got rolling on the shape of things to come even though other parts of the War Department, White House and Congress were getting pissed off at General Billy Mitchell (father of the US Air Force). Within 20 years, aircraft carriers were deciding factors in the Pacific campaigns of WWII; if the US and its allies didn’t sink Imperial Japan’s four carriers in the Battle of Midway, the outcome would’ve been quite different. The US losing wasn’t one. I think the two more reasonable possibilities were the conflict taking longer, giving the Soviet Union a chance to annex some parts of Northern Japan or the US agreeing to a truce/peace treaty which was the Imperial objective since Pearl Harbor.

They remain a big deal in projecting strength worldwide, for better or worse, as the US leads the way with 11 compared to the UK and PRC’s mere two; Russia, India and France have just one. Anything else call an aircraft carrier is a ship transporting helicopters, very useful in rescuing people unlike fighters and bombers. Here other countries have these: Japan, Italy, Brazil, etc. Sadly, Brazil, India, Turkey and South Korea think they need the kind we have 11 of. Then again, France, Russia and China have plans to expand their numbers too.

Anyway, 100 years ago, America made its first one by converting the USS Jupiter, a ship used to transport coal before and during WWI, into Langley. Why this type of vessel? It was the easiest to modify by taking much of the top elements off and replacing them with a landing deck for biplanes, the dominant aircraft around until fuselages were perfect by the Thirties. Who was Langley? He was a scientist and aviation pioneer. Not sure how he felt about having a future weapon named after him. While the Langley was being used to train pilots, conduct experiments in airpower at sea and sail around in naval parades for governments, the US began to redesign the upcoming battleships Saratoga and Lexington as aircraft carriers from the ground up. The Harding and Coolidge administrations had been busy agreeing to peace treaties limiting the construction of “dreadnoughts” yet experimental vessels were a loophole. I imagine they continued under that definition with the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact.

I’m not a huge fan of America’s bloated “defense” budget, especially when one of these multibillion dollar vessels could be scuttled by a score of Iranian speed boats filled with dynamite, or worse, a Chinese missile/torpedo. But one thing I think I could get more agreement on is who they’re named after. Nimitz is a no-brainer, he was the US naval commander in WWII. Eisenhower, not a fan of the POTUS but the excuse is him being the WWII Allied Commander in Europe. The US Navy named two after their big pork barrel benefactors, Carl Vinson and John Stennis who were both from the Deep South, what a surprise. Then comes historical figures: Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. Sadly, Lincoln was used for Dubious’ “Mission Accomplished” stunt and the Washington has been stuck in dock for years of repairs due to crashes on the deck. The remainder are controversial due to the political infighting: Truman (he was an Army vet of WWI), Reagan (sailed in time before the old bastard died) and Bush (at least he was a Navy pilot in WWII). The 11th and newest design since the Nimitz-class rolled out in the Seventies is appropriately named after the first POTUS nobody elected, Ford and like his name, it has been an embarrassment of riches. After pissing away $13 billion (imagine all the healthcare we could’ve had or student-loan debt relieved), it wasn’t close to ready at its launch date in 2018. It couldn’t even launch planes last year with the catapult and to get the damned thing operational by this year, parts were cannibalized from the upcoming Kennedy to make it happen. Given the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Chinese saber rattling Taiwan, I seriously doubt either are concerned about this boondoggle alongside the Osprey (another one crashed recently in Norway) or the overpriced, still overdue, F-35. We can only hope our foes are equally dependent on expensive toys with too many, impractical features.

Sorry, I lost my point about naming these obscene, floating piles of money. Again, war should be avoided but we should name them after American Naval Heroes, not the assholes who diverted badly needed money for domestic issues or shitty presidents. My suggestions: Farragut, (John Paul) Jones…no, not the bass player of Led Zeppelin, both Perry brothers, Mahan, Dewey and Rickover. O’Hare and Miller for their bravery and sadly, they were killed later on in WWII. I’m iffy about Hopper because her life’s work was being a pioneer with computers, not killing other people. Plus, if I were in charge of things, during peace time, I would have our carriers equipped and ready to be deployed for emergencies: earthquakes, floods and tsunamis, much less at blowing up children and people’s homes. I can dream.

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My arguments about DST got partial traction!

Posted on March 20, 2022 by Steve

Well…if you read the article from the most trusted publication these days, The Guardian, it seems the US Senate is oddly in agreement to making DST permanent, which I think it should be. As depressing as it is getting up and going to the gym or work during Winter mornings, I can attest to my ongoing battles, it doesn’t really matter too much. Either way, I awake in the dark. I drive there in the dark. I get started in the dark. The slight difference? I’m walking to my veal-fattening pen during the period between Civil Twilight (the Sun is 6° below the horizon, yet there’s illumination) and Sunrise or the Sun rose about 30-45 minutes ago, never mind how the cold weather is the larger concern.

I am suspicious of anything the Senate or House are nearly unanimous about. Neither are political bodies known for agreeing on much beyond lining their pockets (the big fight about insider trading has the strongest resistance from the Queen Mummy Pelosi) or protecting their useless asses (Gerrymandering). Plus the GOP has tied its fortunes to the Big Jesus Industry with shitbags Sen. Toupée (Paul), Waddle (McConnell) and discount Lex Luthor (Scott) spreading doubt about Science. Could it be the outdoor mall lobby and their big fave, golf courses, have sent some extra cash their way?

We shouldn’t hold our breath. The House has to pass this stupidly named Sunshine Protection Act; Sweet Zombie Jesus! As if sunshine were an endangered species. Despite the slim majority the Dems have over the Confederacy, you can count on the “moderates” (polite term for backward-ass cowards) to raise bullshit objections. My money is on power brokers Clyburn, Hoyer or one of the many old fart knockers who should’ve retired 20-plus years ago. They’ll use some excuse of nostalgia or other nonsense, namely their grandchildren who attend private academies via personal chauffeurs, having to travel in the dark.

I continue to stand by my pitch of breaking up into additional zones given how Austin straddles the current Central and Mountain zones. Neither works well. By the way, Nevada should give up on being in Pacific too. All the distant locals they depend on can handle the time change to lose money and see horribly aging Boomer/Gen X bands.

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MCU Recap 1: Loki and Modok

Posted on March 19, 2022 by Steve


We’re about six weeks away from Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and I sat on my ass, failing to blather on about the latest MCU crap and whatever else came out in the meantime. Sure there’s spoilers by now yet I would love to get your opinions or input. Why? Well, once again, Disney did a fantastic job keeping the MCU ball rolling through Disney+ with Loki which is canon and some non-canon, MODOK is dirty humor, with Hulu; it’s easily outside the MCU given Iron Man being still alive, AIM is a menace (the R&D division of HYDRA) and this universe has Wonderman.

First up is Loki which makes everybody’s favorite step-brother villain an anti-hero in his own right. What can you do? Tom Hiddleston is a very charming actor who made Thor’s main nemesis his own thing. Besides giving the god of mischief his very own adventures, the series sets up the foundation for the new ongoing villain for the upcoming theatrical releases. It’s been about a year so it’s not a spoiler anymore…Kang the Conqueror. More on him later.

The show begins during Avengers: Endgame with Loki taking advantage of the Avengers from the future messing with time to retrieve the Infinity Stones before Thanos can get them. However, this is not the Loki we would go on to see afterwards. The Avengers triggered a split in continuity by their actions or what I propose, a divergence through the fifth dimension (known as probability). This Loki doesn’t get loose for long because he’s busted by the Time Variance Authority (TVA). Much like the Marvel editorial team, their job is to keep everything straight and maintain ONE TIMELINE, ONE REALITY. Instead of eradicating this stray Loki, he’s recruited by Agent Mobius to hunt down yet another Loki (Sylvie, a possible stand-in for the villain The Enchantress) who’s avoided capture. Time isn’t necessarily linear to the TVA as they bounce around it, destroying divergences to protect the one, true timeline they monitor from afar.

Given how well WandaVision and Falcon went, I was pretty sold and I’m glad I wasn’t disappointed. The attention to detail was my favorite part. Here’s this amazing time travel/police agency still saddled with Seventies technology! Rotary phones. Data entry with pencils. Reel-to-reel tapes. Punchcards. All with those awful earth-tones businesses had. The show also visits points in History outside of the Earth, some disaster on an alien mining world was pretty scary. Eventually you find out even time has a stopping point because the future is always unfolding and hidden from the TVA. When Kang is revealed, I was squealing with joy and completely forgot he just sat there and blathered for about 10 minutes, bringing all the action to a halt.

The show did way better than planned, unlike the previous two (successful and great), Loki will have a second season as it ended messily…the multiverse was unleashed by Loki, Sylvie and Kang’s actions. The latter character is slated to return to plague Ant-Man and the Wasp next.

Lastly, who is Kong exactly? For those who don’t know and/or aren’t too concerned, he’s a slippery time-traveling and probability foe of the Fantastic Four and Avengers from the future. Some say he’s Dr. Doom, others Dr. Doom’s descendent, another time he was Frankling Richards (son of Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman) and sometimes he’s anybody. The problem is that he is rather infinite thanks to the multi-verse, divergences in time and probability and how causality isn’t in stone with comic books. One thing is always certain with Kang, he (or she) can’t stand other Kangs as only he rules alone, not by committee as per Rich Sanchez.

MODOK is more of a Robot Chicken project with Patton Oswalt voice-acting a villain even weirder than Arnim Zola. I can’t even remember which Marvel hero he plagued first, given his propensity for gadgets and bossing around AIM, I’m gambling on Iron Man. Hulu probably got it due to the swearing and dirty jokes too.

While Loki‘s adventure has great cosmic consequences, MODOK‘s is more personal and limited stakes as it’s mostly a SitCom on steroids. Poor MODOK with his AIM flunkies can’t even defeat a solo Avenger. Now his leadership is being challenged by his head scientist and an annoying, stereotypical Silicon-Valley startup asshole (Austin Van der Sleet). Things at home are going worse. His wife Jodie wants a divorce so she can pursue her Martha Stewartesque bullshit, his daughter is a self-centered teenager (’nuff said) and his son is just a nuisance.

How does time travel fit into it? MODOK uses it to find out when his marriage went wrong and like Loki, he causes a divergence but with his younger, obnoxious, Nineties cliché self. Plus there’s more going on with Austin’s employer than it just being a bunch of evil VCs; hard to believe Peter Thiel could be topped in fiction.

Is it funny? Mostly for the Robot Chicken crowd and fans of stand-up comedy since fellow comic voices and jokesters Eddie Pepitone, Jon Daly, Bill Hader, Alan Tudyk, Brooke Dillman, Chris Parnell  and Brian Posehn get parts. I was hoping they’d do more with his daughter Melissa since she shares MODOK’s appearance. Jodie is easy to dislike for me. I can’t stand wannabe gurus who think they’ve invented the wheel and attempt to copyright crap with their name.

Given that Hulu is a thousand times more patient than Netflix and mostly owned by Disney, I’m confident MODOK will return to resolve the conflict of there being two of him and the main MODOK trying to take more direct control of AIM.

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Marquette v. UNC in round one…

Posted on March 18, 2022 by Steve

Well, we looked good on paper being the number eight team against the number nine team in the tournament’s first round. So we were right in the middle and that meant the teams were supposed to be evenly matched. Hell, I heard Marquette needed three points to beat the spread according to Las Vegas. But let’s remember, the opponent was the UNC Tarheels, practically an NBA franchise, at worst D or G League. This school takes college basketball too religiously and the redshirting they’ll do to get their championships borders on cheating. Imagine the crap they pull off under a cover of darkness.

It’s OK. As I have always said long after I graduated, my BA and all my friends’ degrees remain valid. We can be grateful that sports are not the determiner for accreditation on the education we received or there’d be tens of thousands of pissed, ripped off UT students throughout Texas and the globe. I also hope those of you with children don’t let your kids choose their higher education destinations over a sports franchise. If it’s the primary factor with your offspring, you might want to just save your money and make them attend a local community college for the first couple years. Northwestern is the only university I automatically give a pass on. They may be in the Big 10 and boy do they suck.

Until next year, Marquette will continue to cry in its collective beer, reminiscing over 2003 and 1977. I can relate. I’ve never nailed the brass ring in any career for decades too.

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RIP William Hurt

Posted on March 17, 2022 by Steve

In my obsession with getting other stories done and Picayune being caught up, I forgot to write about the passing of this actor who was somewhat a part of my life. Besides often getting mixed up with UK actor John Hurt (who passed away some years ago), he got his big start via Altered States, a movie I still need to see. Like many, I only know the scene everybody imitates and is better known as the ending to a-ha’s “Take On Me” music video.

The real major Science-Fi stuff he contributed to was Dark City, Lost in Space and the Dune miniseries. Not all big successes. Dark City was a let down when you discovered what the hell was really going on, rather stupid. Yet it never lived on as a staple seller for Hot Topic. I think he did a pretty decent job playing Professor Robinson in the 1998 take on Lost in Space given he’s in the presence of Gary Oldman. My love of the movie goes back and forth. Currently, the special effects didn’t hold up and the dialog around the second half is terrible but the story stays true to the impossible happening to the Jupiter 2 as the TV show emphasized. Lastly, I think his Duke Leto in Dune was alright given the character gets whacked pretty early by the Harkonens. Due to him having top billing to sell this joint SyFy-Europe project, Hurt continued to appear in Paul’s dreams during parts two and three.

Beyond Science Fiction, I know he’s Albert Brooks’ nemesis in Broadcast News, one of the numerous boring Boomers in The Big Chill or another package to resell old Motown singles, The Accidental Tourist and I do remember he gets played by Kathleen Turner in Body Heat. I only have interest in the first flick because Albert Brooks teamed up with James L Brooks often results in something funny.

Thanks for what you did William. I heard you could be a real asshole too, especially to Mary Maitlin as per her memoirs yet a couple obits said you did try to make amends.

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New listing for March 2022

Posted on March 16, 2022 by Steve

Newly built duplex on Howard Lane. Near the Capital Metro’s light rail line. $1,000,000 OBO. Too late, three Californicators and a Brooklyn Hipster got into a bidding war so it sold for $2.5 million. Wait until they see their property tax bill itemized for how much goes toward featherbedding Elon Musk, Jeffrey Bezos and Michael Dell, plus making more Texas children morons via our idiot state gubmint.

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This year’s SXSW Bingo Card

Posted on March 14, 2022 by Steve

Courtesy of the humorous Twitter feed Evil MoPac. Click on it to get the full view. Sadly, I get to automatically check three boxes because they’re year-round problems with the rude morons who have moved here from Dallas. We did go to Rainey Street last weekend to celebrate the majority of the house stuff being completed, the weather clearing up and we had a hankering for Bangers. Despite the streets being swamped by the badge-wearing assholes from “the Industry” and wannabes, trust me, I was laughing at one that said, “working press.” It’s more polite and prestigious than “Unpaid intern with a trust fund,” or Meghan McCain for short.

Personally, Austin has grown up enough to not be so dependent on this now annoying, asshole gathering and I wouldn’t shed a tear if it went away. It was nice until a $200 wristband didn’t guarantee entry to everything. I never bought one since I either didn’t have a good-paying job or when I did land the good-paying job, it has always been inflexible with my schedule, including medical or personal emergencies. I can’t wait for Sunday morning, when they hung over and getting on their planes yet dreading how they’re doing the back-of-the-envelope math to buy a place here with their bloated NY/CA equity to push me out.

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Al Jaffe of MAD Magazine is 101!

Posted on March 14, 2022 by Steve

Comedian Dan Telfer made the best joke, Al’s birthday is now the perfect fold-in! For Gen Z and some Mills, back when MAD was around, the back, inside cover was an art-based joke by Al. It would ask a question and the answer was sussed out by folding in the picture along the A and B tabs. How Al managed to do this for decades is beyond me. Sure, not every one was a hit yet you had to give him credit for such diligence.

He also contributed other great bits, namely his Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions section that MAD would recollect into paperback books. Again, this section wasn’t always a home run nor did they always age well but they were immortalized by The Simpsons…

I loved his other articles, namely when I was a kid, Al came up with counter inventions we need every day. Today, I would love to have a set of reverse headlights to glare back at all those frickin’ F-350s and SUVs riding up on me. Dilate their irises suddenly, see how they like it while they’re jibber jabbering on their phones. Then the special punishments for certain offenders was great. I only remember the pool of warm pickle brine and other liquids you sentence pool pissers to. And they had to be submerged up to their chins to get the point 0f what they do.

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How Daylight Savings Time feels for about two weeks

Posted on March 13, 2022 by Steve

It’s baaaaaack! The idiocy of us setting our clocks forward to “save” something other than stress, sleep, time, etc. Once again it is my bi-annual diatribe on why this shit needs to end but I did do some poking around with the records on how much the sunlight variation Austin receives over a year. Arizona and Indiana (used to) to do it right, they “stood still” because their global position was perfect for where they are. So I thought about pitching four additional time zones for the US which would make more sense from an energy conservation stance, a major reason why this DST crap got pushed in the Seventies.

Firstly, the US Eastern Zone is way too large. It extends from Maine/Florida all the way out to Indiana and much of Tennessee. It’s rather ridiculous. By splitting the Eastern Zone in half and make the demarcation around the border between Ohio and Pennsylvania with a difference of 30 minutes would be smarter. Many think, 30 minutes? Rather weird. Not really. Australia has their Eastern Zone (really two divided by the north-south borders of those two states), then the next zone to the west is only 30 minutes followed by their western-most region be another 90 minutes. It does get confusing when they implement DST yet Australia is a continent stretching up into the Equator (the perfect balance of sunlight).

Back to my idea though…

Energy would be saved since there wouldn’t be all those people in the “East” and East Coast coming online all at the same time. The grid would have less stress put on it too. The tricky part would be where the dividing line should be for Central Time. It definitely should be along the border between Illinois-Wisconsin and Michigan-Indiana which does show my bias of having grown up there. Off the cuff, I’d pitch it ends on the western border between Iowa-Minnesota and the Dakotas. Texas could split up too since Austin doesn’t quite fit in well with Central as is and this is what I’m tripping up on. Between the solstices, there’s a difference of almost FOUR HOURS in sunlight. Ouch! Checking Milwaukee to see…oh good grief, over SIX HOURS, how did I live with such an awful contrast? Blech! Milwaukee being on DST for good makes more sense as I look at the sunrise/sunset times. Looking over Austin, we’re in a crappy in-between spot on the East-West axis. I would still stand by my push to have us 30 minutes behind Central DST. It’ll be pretty dark in the Winter mornings in exchange for having a little more light in the late afternoon.

Secondly, our recent cultural shifts on working (more people toil on weekends and crap hours since some people gotta’ have their crap 24/7) and TV viewing make my pitch viable. When the VCR became affordable in the Eighties, people could watch their favorite shows at their convenience. DVRs and now Streaming have made “time-shifting” normal. There’s only two types of programing locked down to live/in-the-moment, the News and Sports. CNN and the Internet tackled the former and the latter we can adjust on. For example, say the Dallas Cowboys (I picked at random) have their home kickoff at 12 PM Central. We in Austin will be fine and their fans here can handle/adjust to it be at 11:30 AM…what should we name my new home time zone? So far, going from East to West, I have East Coast Time (NYC), Eastern Time (Cleveland), Central Time (Chicago), Mountain (Denver) and Pacific Coast (LA). For the Dakotas, you could call it Prairie although our climate it nothing like it. Plains Time? Hill Time? Send me your suggestions.

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Wade Watts’ cousin!

Posted on March 12, 2022 by Steve

I loved the novel Ready Player One, but as a film it was a turd-filled burger right after the poster was released. Above is a mannequin who is also based upon Wade Watts’ poorly airbrushed leg. Oh wait. I just remembered, Ernest Cline wrote a sequel called Ready Player Two. Great. Hollywood learned nothing and this must be a line of clothing to promote a movie nobody wanted.

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Hooray! My vision or eyeballs, are holding steady!

Posted on March 11, 2022 by Steve

I accidentally discovered I was overdue for an eye exam and it only happened thanks to me stepping on my glasses; the joys of sleeping on a mattress on the floor. How did I pull this off in my youth? Today I have to be a starring member of Cirque du Soleil to stand up in the morning! And yes, I have a nightstand, it just happened to be the one time I left my glasses on the floor without thinking it through. Currently, the best/only pair I’m wearing are holding up thanks to the Kragl keeping the frame together so the lens doesn’t fall out. The downside is I can’t “close” the part hanging over my ear as I glued it stuck. At least it’s not on the lens!

So I got my appointment. Went through those tests in which you’re paranoid about giving the correct answers, especially the peripheral vision video game. All I could think, c’mon Steve, roll high on your Perception checks! Then comes, do I answer honestly or guess what letter I think I see? I’ve never bothered to memorize the charts as per Cotton Hill did in a great episode of King of the Hill. The only matter to go badly, one test gave me motion sickness or something because I had to hurriedly ask the doctor for her trash can to puke into. Normally I’m OK when I haven’t had much to eat and I didn’t drink any Starbucks before arrival. Nothing to fear. It was only the dry heaves and if it wasn’t, I did make the target unlike Archer.

The good news is my eyes have had no decline for three more years, they’re still at least 2017 capabilities! What can I say, I’m vain and vision is a big concern for me. We live in a visual world these days. If you can’t read or watch stuff, you’re in deep shit.

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AS I WISH Part One

Posted on March 10, 2022 by Steve

It is the 35th Anniversary of The Princess Bride and the MacFarlane toy company made these awesome action figures. Each has 22 points of articulation but sadly, they’re both right-handed so you can’t do the duel accurately. Well, maybe I could use tape to keep the swords in their left hands until they choose to switch. I did score Princess Buttercup in the red dress (from when she is kidnapped) and I’m going to save her photo for when my store has the Fezzik figure they promised on the back of the packaging. Rather odd, figures tend to be released in threes or at least it’s how I recall the ones I love for Avatar the Last Airbender.

Will I take these out of the box? Hell yes! I’m just waiting for a later point in time, namely when I get my home office under control enough. With the announced plan to return to the campus, I’m debating whether or not I want to decorate my returning cube with these bitchin’ treasures. However, I signed up to be in the hybrid program of X number of days at home versus X at the campus. I would not get to enjoy admiring these well-made replicas of two great characters every work day. I think my concerns about them being stolen would rise too. Despite all the big-brother cameras in place, security has been no help whatsoever with some co-workers’ attempts at retrieving their lost property. We’ll see. I need to figure out what are some great poses for Inigo and Wesley, duking it out to save Princess Buttercup from the ruthless and inconceivable clutches of Vizzini! There’s the figure they better not skip alongside Prince Humperdinck and Count Rugan.

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How March 2020 v. 3 Feels

Posted on March 9, 2022 by Steve

Of course, I was pretty fat two years ago but the graphic of Kermit is a more accurate portrayal regarding my frustration with trying to lose the stress-eating weight I gained last month. At least I didn’t break my March streak by hitting the gym after work while juggling therapy in while waiting in queue for dinner. I know all my friends mean well with their suggestions yet I just don’t care for all the bullshit-fad diets: paleo, atkins, keto, no more carbs, etc. They’re all a load of crap in my opinion. In the end, the key is stop stuffing our faces and exercise more which is pretty difficult since I don’t live the calorie-burning lifestyle I had before I turned 18. Well, I think I did pretty well between 1994-96 too. Those were the days I didn’t own nor have access to a car which led to numerous days spent walking around Austin’s Hyde Park, the UT campus, Highland Mall (layovers with the bus) and sweating buckets at the bus stops.

I think I’m starting to get mattes back on track. Every other day is my turn to cook at Castello di Maggi. Jennifer doesn’t eat much because she is a smaller person and it’s not a secret, part of her intestines were removed a couple decades ago. So the trick is to make maybe a serving and a half to cut down on waste too. Plus, by keeping my amount low due to my tendency to finish off her food; thanks to my grandparents’ incessant stories about people starving in Europe (I know, them saying it in the Seventies was weird) or how hard it was to get whatever processed crap we were eating, during the Depression. At least Jennifer remains onboard with all my salads for lunch and not getting in the way of hitting the gym. Would I like her to join me? Yeah, I just won’t really press as she has other health reasons versus the other women/friends in my life.

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Learning about other electronic money systems

Posted on March 8, 2022 by Steve

Today is a momentous day in Castello di Maggi, Jennifer got paid today and we finally start the fun of balancing out the money and expenses. I bet you dreaded this being another pitch for the latest pyramid scam…cryptocurrency, which I’m confident Russia’s aggression will prove to be as worthless as I always knew it was.

Since Jennifer is one of those irrational Apple anything haters as she prefers to use others’ less intuitive gear, Apple Pay is out of the question. I pitched Cash, made by the Square Reader people or even Venom. Her rebuttal without evidence, they’re unsecure without providing any documented cases to make this point. No, she insisted on Zelle due to it being the preferred solution with her credit union. Too bad neither credit union I belong to had any interest in being a part of Zelle (now or ever), but they’re all in with Apple Pay! Suck it haters!

Despite my apprehensions, both institutions did allow my debit cards to enroll so we did tests of Jennifer sending me a buck. Zelle on my iPhone said, you got the money. The puzzling part was, now what? Could I spend the money directly as Apple Pay allows me to do via Apple Cash? No. Then what? Eventually, the money showed up in my checking account balance which was a huge relief. Seems the solution will work for the interim. The interim? I can’t predict the future, so I stand by the statement as an escape clause should things go to crap or worse…we get married. Yeah, I haven’t learned my lesson from last time yet you could say the same for Jennifer.

Next up, getting Jennifer to pay attention to the books! I want her to know I can be trusted and nobody is getting ripped off.

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