63 thoughts on “November 16, 2017: …Fine.”

  2. Since we got so much discussion about DST, and I'm in a Festivus-y mood, let me complain about something else:
    Talking crosswalk monitors.
    I hate them. "Wait. . . Wait. . . Wait."
    They've just been installed in many downtown intersections.
    Sound pollution is a thing and I feel like Harrison Bergeron.
    Hearing the constant repetition of this mantra is only going to hurt my decisiveness (and I just spent 20 minutes writing this).

    Can't we give some proximity devices to the blind such that these things only speak when people who need them are within, say 20 meters?
    Heck, they could be fixed to language, so that these aren't useless to the blind that don't speak English.

    2. Oooooooh, I've been harboring this complaint since sometime in the summer. They're AWFUL. I feel like there is almost certainly a more aesthetically pleasing way to assist visually impaired people cross the streets.

      It bothers me in the way that I'm bothered when I'm on hold and the hold music stops, making me think I'm about to be connected with an actual human being, only to get a message informing me that I'm on hold and my call is important. I ALREADY KNEW I WAS ON HOLD!!!!!!

      1. At least that's an opt-in. Don't make a call, no hold.

        I hated them when I first noticed them around the St. Paul UST campus a few years ago, where they were much louder.
        My annoyance with those in downtown Mpls would not have been as immediately acute if I hadn't had prior experience with them, but would have been a growing, nagging distaste.
        At least now I'm aware enough to fight the subliminal suggestions of hesitation.

        1. Those aren't confined to Japan. I've never heard the talking ones, but I've heard the beep/chirp tones more than once. I remember Vancouver having those.

          I'm bothered by the thought of artificial sound generation on electric cars such that they are audible to the visually impaired. Seriously??

      3. Do the ones in downtown Minneapolis also make that sound that sounds like machinegun fire? My friend in St. Paul lives on University and whenever we walk somewhere, that sound makes me intensely uncomfortable.

          1. More like video game-machine guns ... maybe?
            I always thought "Woody Woodpecker"

            Fast forward to the 1:00 minute mark.

    3. I will jump in to complain about something else:

      At the local Cub grocery today. Walk back in the freezer section to look for something and there are 2 guys using inventory-scanner-guns-thingamajigs to scan product. Either they are doing inventory or ordering product. Every time they scan something the gun puts out an incredibly loud and piercing BEEEEEPPPPP!! So annoying. Each time I cringed and by the time I walked out of that section my ears were ringing. I did tell a very nice bagger about it on my way out the door, but jeepers, wouldn't someone think about either turning down the volume, or designing a gun that has a volume control, so they aren't so disruptive?

      By the way, thingamajig must actually be a word. I spelled it incorrectly at first, and it showed up red on my spell check. Once if fixed it, no more red. Who knew?

    5. I was just in a hotel in Nashville and they had some kind of chirping sound on their crosswalks. I could hear it in my room on the 16th floor.

  3. File under “Essentially as Old” since it’s not down to the day:

    I swung into a coffee shop on my way to work this morning. One of the college student baristii was singing along to The Wallflowers’ “One Headlight” (off Bringing Down the Horse, which remains one of my favorite albums of its era). I found myself thinking that she might’ve not been born yet when that song was released, so I looked. Yep, 1996. Almost certainly not alive yet. So then I got to thinking, “What songs were that old in November 1996?” Well, here are some highlight releases from November 1975: The Band's "Acadian Driftwood," Barry Manilow's "I Write the Songs," C.W. McCall's "Convoy," & the Ohio Players' "Love Rollercoaster." Plus, “Bohemian Rhapsody” was released on Halloween 1975.

    1. I've often thought, "What happens to my understanding of 'Classic Rock' - as personally assigned in my iPod genre descriptions - when I start hearing my generation's songs on the 'Classic Rock' stations?" and, "Will my kids think of Tool, Pearl Jam, Oasis, Band of Horses and Sturgill the way I think of Sabbath, CCR, the Stones, CSN&Y and Waylon?"

      1. I wonder what the next big pop music innovation will be. Electric guitars were a game-changer, and so were synthesizers and drum machines. It seems like those sorts of landmark changes tend to define eras more than just time passed. (Though the passage of time does matter.)

          1. I considered it, but it seems like more of a fad. I don't think it's really had as big of an impact.

    2. I do love playing that game from time to time.

      Nirvana's Nevermind is as old now as Rubber Soul and Highway 61 Revisited were when Nevermind was released

  4. Sooooo...woke up this morning to a pounding on the door...clothe myself...bright lights in the street, but nobody at the front door...wheels churn a moment before realizing the police are knocking on the service door, in the garage, which almost certainly meant the garage door had been left open, or had been opened by someone. We're often guilty of the former, but in this case was the latter.
    We walked around the house a spell looking for missing things, but as his trained eyes spotted wife's purse untouched a few steps inside the door, we're pretty sure the house was untouched. My take is that they took one look in our mudroom and decided they didn't want to try and tiptoe through our FunHouse, Home Alone-style. Also cats running around, daughter's radio playing upstairs, noise of cat water fountain thingy.
    Still.
    They did say some things were taken from neighbors, including a shotgun somewhere. I don't recall in my half-stupor if they said they had a couple people in custody or a couple houses had reported things. I think I'll call the department later for details.

    So the question for the Citizenry...if my car's garage door opener was taken, can I get by with getting another and reprogramming? Or does it not work that way and I need to somehow change the garage door mechanism itself? It seems like that shouldn't be the case, but I'm not sure if there are set frequencies or what. I know I can Google these things, and I shall, but felt like sharing anyhow.

    1. In the cases with which I am familiar, you have to have physical access to the garage door opener to reset the code md do the handshake with the remote(s). So you are good once you get a replacement remote (didn't you have two?).

      1. This seems to be the case...pretty simple, really. Press and hold to reset all codes. Press again to learn, press remote, lights blink, confirm, done.

        The other remotes are still in the van in the garage.

    2. That is unsettling, to say the least. When we lived in St. Paul, my car was broken into on a couple of occasions (and in one instance, the catalytic converter cut out of the exhaust system with a hacksaw). Nothing really serious was stolen, but that feeling of violation sucks. Sorry to hear it.
      I'd assume you could get a replacement remote and reprogram it - lost remotes would seem like a relatively common occurrence.

    5. We had a break-in about a year ago. They popped open a first floor window during a week day while we were gone. When I came home with the kids I saw stuff strewn all over the floor in the entry way, and thought my wife had just made a mess in a mad dash to find some missing thing. Then, I realized the back window was open, and the front door was not all the way closed either.

      They went through just about every room, pulling stuff out and looking for valuables. They ended up taking the old phones we let the kids use when traveling, an iPad, some of my wife (super cheap costume) jewelry, and two fire safes. I'm guessing they expected the safes to have something valuable; in fact they were just full of our paperwork that we wanted to keep safe. That meant we didn't lose anything much of any value to the burglars, but to us that meant replacing birth certificates, social security cards, marriage certificate, passports (which we still haven't ponied up to replace yet), etc. So, huge hassle for us, with little reward for them.

      We now have cameras and a security system. Not sure that it actually makes it any less likely someone would break in, but at least makes it a little more likely they'd be caught.

        1. Nothing that we know of at least. We and the police expected this was not a very sophisticated operation, and were likely looking for things that are easier to make a quick buck off of. Cash, electronics, guns, etc.

  5. Weight loss update: This morning I am down to 180, twenty-three pounds less than Peak Jeff on June 1. As I said before, it seems slow when you're living it, but looking back on it that's right around a pound a week, which doesn't seem like a bad pace at all.

    1. Seems like the way to do it. Remind me of your tactics? Always curious about the sustainability of success in these matters.

      1. Pretty simple, really. I've adopted a low-carb diet. For me, that bascially meant eliminating potatoes, corn, and desserts and cutting significantly back on bread, milk, and fruit juice. I eat meats and cheeses, green vegetables, and certain fruits (mostly fresh melons or berries). It helps a lot that I don't care that much about variety--if it's something I like I can eat the same things every day for weeks and not be bothered by it.

        The biggest key for me is to not allow myself to cheat. At all. I've learned from my past that for me, one cheat day turns into two, and then into a cheat week, and then into a cheat month. It's not always easy in my job--there are lots of church dinners and funeral lunches, and of course whenever you go visit someone they bring out the pie or the cake or the brownies for "a little lunch". But so far people seem to be pretty understanding about it.

        As far as sustainability, you're right, that's the big question. I haven't told myself that I'll never eat those things again, just that I'm not eating them now. It helps that I live sixty miles from the nearest Dairy Queen. I don't really have a goal weight in mind. I figure that once I reach a point where, on this diet, I'm not losing weight any more, I'll be at what my weight should be. At that point, I might allow myself to eat something not on my diet once in a while. What I'll need to do, though, is figure out some sort of rule or schedule that limits the number of times I do that. I haven't figured it out yet, but right now my thought is to worry about it when the time comes to worry about it.

        1. My goodness, I feel like I could've written this post.

          My wife introduced me to keto about a month and a half ago. We eat a lot of burgers, bacon, and avoiding potatoes, corn, sweets, sugar, etc. And I totally agree on the cheating. I used to find all sorts of excuses. "Oh, it's so-and-so's anniversary, surely I can have some cake." leads to "Little Bit went poo-poo on the potty for the 3rd time today, I'll have an M&M or two or twelve too"

          1. It's not always easy, that's for sure. Mrs. A provides me with a lot of support in the area of will-power.

    2. Well done.

      I am not far off from peak Phil, and have been thinking seriously about my efforts to lose weight. I'm looking down the calendar a ways and see that my 15 year college reunion is just over 6 months away and my 20 year HS reunion is ~ 1.5 years away, and I wouldn't mind looking better than I do for those events.

      I was even thinking about putting up a WGOM fitness post. I don't really know when or where I'd find the time to exercise, but I'm working on diet a little bit (eating less/not at all after dinner, better snacks in the office, etc.).

      1. For me, diet is more important than exercise. Doing both is best, obviously. But I can lose weight with a low-carb diet without exercising. I can't lose weight by exercising if I don't clean up my diet. But I'm just speaking for myself--others may have different experiences. And again, doing both is clearly optimal.

    3. Hope I don't jinx it, but I'm on a similar path. Was peak 248 this summer. I'm down to 224, with almost 15 of those pounds coming in the last four weeks. That seems like a lot to lose in a short time, but I don't feel like I'm starving myself. I'm just eating what a normal diet should be instead of just eating non-stop all day every day. I am tracking my calories which makes it easier for me to not go back for seconds. And the easiest thing for me to stay away from is all liquids that have calories. Otherwise I haven't eliminated any one thing; just eating less.

      I imagine the weight will come off less fast now, but like Jeff, I've not had any cheat days in the past four weeks. We'll see if I can keep that up through the holidays.

  6. The 4ltr’s three-ring circus is right outside my building, its roustabouts setting up for their breathless coverage of the destruction of “amateur” gladiators’ brains at an institution founded to develop, not destroy, minds.

    1. Comments are pretty funny on that story. Imagine Yankee fans feeling their guy was robbed. huh.

    2. All sat.

      This vote was much less close than I expected. fWAR has a decent lead for Judge while rWAR has a small lead of Altuve. That instead he got 27 first place votes is surprising.

      Dozier finished 11th with 25 points. Buxton finished 18th with seven points.

      My favorite part of BBWAA's announcement:

      This election marked the first time in six years that Trout, who placed fourth, failed to finish first or second in the balloting. He and Barry Bonds are the only players to have finished first or second in MVP voting in five consecutive elections.

      1. but...but... FM clear-channel.!!!=112!1

        I am very happy about this. I live in the Twin Cities and couldn't find the games on terrestrial radio.

Comments are closed.