Smellovision, Is That An App?

Ah, the memories. What memories? Scent memories. Is that recall or recognition? It is beautiful. Well, sometimes anyway.

Recall, dredging up the past. Recognition, finding triggers.

Actually scent memories tend to be the latter in my opinion. They can be vivid.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-babble/201501/smells-ring-bells-how-smell-triggers-memories-and-emotions

Good or bad you might recognize that smell. Interestingly, to me at least, I recall a particular day. The woman I was dating broke up with me. Later, on my way to work I noticed how her perfume, Lady Stetson, lingered in my vehicle. On my way home I bought and used a bottle of “New Car Scent”. A few months later I bought a bottle of Lady Stetson for my new girlfriend because it still triggered more positive feelings than negative. I didn’t tell her WHY I liked that scent.

Why is such an interesting question. From a toddler it can be so irritating, and after a while you just have to say just because. But you should retain that inquisitiveness privately. Most people have no idea why they do or feel what they do. Introspection is good. Why is good. It prevents or at least limits the frequency and intensity of people yanking your chain just to watch you react. That can be very good in the age of social networking. Spammers, like miners, share miners, love to yank chains with misleading headlines. Usually they use false equivalencies, and ask for a like or a share. Yea, I’m going to say I hate puppies and sunsets by not sharing. Ask yourself before others ask you. Know why you feel that way.

Why DO you feel that way? Could it be pheromones? About 30 years ago I read a study about androgen. Does it attract women? I couldn’t find a reference to that study, but their answer was that it didn’t attract heterosexual women. It repelled heterosexual males. I find that intriguing. Tangentially, there was a Peanuts cartoon where Schroeder is talking to Lucy. Lucy says that she can picture them married. Schroeder replies that he wouldn’t marry her unless she were the last woman on Earth. Lucy asks, “Did you say if or unless?” Schroeder states, “I admit I said unless.” In the last panel Lucy shouts, “Hope!” I think that conversation reflects a more male pattern of thought. Drive away all competition and they will have to select me.

I could be wrong.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15501487

I could’ve searched for the SNL skit, “The Last Straight Man In San Francisco”. It had a similar theme. But I didn’t.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/01/06/farmer-destroys-nazi-cows/21325527/

The Nazis liked selective breeding. I doubt that there was much love involved though. They did like sausages. German sausages and Polish sausages are liked but I doubt they are loved. Metaphorically, I’m sure they are loved.

Well, this post meandered in a direction I didn’t plan, but that’s okay. I noticed something just now that I had missed for a very long time. In the following video when they “Heil!” they flip the bird. Way to go Spike and company!

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Doing Laps, Vanity and The Blob

Went to the doctor yesterday. I’m still alive.

The Irish Rovers used to always end the show with one of two sayings. “May you be be half an hour in Heaven before the devil knows you’re dead.” And “May you live as long as you want to and may you want to as long as you live.”

The doctor gave me the usual talk about losing weight, but he did pick up on something without me saying it directly. He told me that my weight would significantly shorten my life. Then he said that doesn’t mean I’ll die a quick death from a heart attack. He told me that when his elderly patients say they’re ready to go he reminds them they could have debilitating incidents that don’t kill them, like strokes. If dying doesn’t scare me he will tell me about other possibilities. I have been exercising more. My A1C has been below 6 for 2 years now. I never did have to take diabetic meds. I can stop doing the test strips now though. How would the obituary read? Last words were, “I said I’m not sick!” Rather vain to think about what others might say. Could play this song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6UAYGxiRwU

She did confirm who the song was about. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/gossip/la-et-mg-carly-simon-youre-so-vain-about-warren-beatty-partially-20151118-story.html

There is a meme circulating on Facebook about not needing to know what others think of you. This is very true. Most people are not thinking about you very often and when they do it might not be flattering. A coworker once shared a story about a doctor he was friends with. The Dr was born in the US to Japanese parents. They spoke Japanese in the house so he was very fluent. Having went to school to be a doctor, he was quite intelligent. He decided to visit Japan. Upon his return he told my coworker that he would never go back. Despite being very fluent, he had never learned to READ Japanese. He had to ask about train schedules and routes. People would treat him like an idiot. The sign is right there, can’t you read? they would say.

Sometimes you’re better off not knowing what people think of you.

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What do you lose when you stand up? Your lap.
Making laps would be sitting then.

I saw a remake of the Blob on Crackle earlier. I prefer the old version. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094761/

And I like this song, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK5jyVCdXwc

had to clear up stuff from the title.

Alas Poor Yorick, I’d rather Be A Tree

The question is not IF you will die, but what will be served at the reception. Soylent Green is not recommended.

One of my cousins died about a week ago. She was the last of her generation in that branch of my extended family. My dad’s sister had two girls and a boy. Her grandkids are in their forties. Her great grandkids are in their twenties. Some of them have young children also. The young ones I really don’t know. I can see obvious family traits so I know who they came from. They’re obviously human. I doubt there is any Denisovan in the family tree, Neanderthals I’m not so sure about. Anyway, the one that died was 69 and had one daughter. I remember when that daughter first remembered that I was a family member. Her aunt and uncle were celebrating their 25th anniversary. They were my cousins also so I attended until I had to leave for work. Later, a coworker and I were working on the exterior of the building when she went in. I said “Hi” and she ignored me. My coworker asked me if I knew her. I told him it was my cousin’s kid. She was about 20 and quite attractive. When she came out I said, “I said HI!” She turned, ready to give an earful when she suddenly realized I was a relative. “Oh, you work here?” she said. I replied, “For about the last 15 years”. She has not forgotten me since. I have been mistaken for other family members since we tend to be short round and hairy.

After I’m dead I suspect I really won’t care what happens to my earthly remains. I have no martian remains.

I did not know Yorick. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorick

According to Ginger on Gilligan’s Island, one acting lesson is to pretend to be a tree. One can be a real tree. http://www.beatree.com/

If you don’t want to be a tree, perhaps you would like to be plastic? http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/exihibition-of-human-bodies-body-worlds-come-home-to-heidelberg

Some are less enamored of plastic. Frank Zappa wrote https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy4KU0bWrbc

Denisovans did exist. I didn’t make them up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denisovan

That last vid was just because I find it hilarious and I haven’t watched it in a while.

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B.W.B. Babes Without Borders

I’m pretty much an equal opportunity ogler. There are people that are easy on the eyes in most countries. I certainly enjoy looking at them. A Miss Universe contest featuring only humans does seem a bit egocentric for the species though. It could be xenophobia I suppose. On Gilligan’s Island Gilligan managed to avoid trouble by picking Gladys. She was the only native.

There might be other natives in the universe. Would they be babes? What characteristics define a “Babe”? Well the word babe is closely related to the word baby. There is a survival benefit for babies to be cute. How many would be conceived or born if a mother’s reaction were “That ugly thing came out of me! It Hurt!!”

Babies like milk glands, mammalian ones anyway. Their fathers often like milk glands too. Sometimes politicians like milk glands. They even kiss babies sometimes. Some aren’t sure what they should kiss. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilbur_Mills Or who they should kiss https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Sanford

It should be noted that if you tell your family and security detail that you will be gone hiking, you might want to pick some other time than nude hiking week. http://www.hikingnaked.com/index.php?topic=103.0;prev_next=next

Politicians aren’t always known for good decisions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK8Iowe83-A
The blond behind Dean is pretty cute. The hearings interrupted my cartoons so yes I did watch the hearings despite being rather young. I started following politics after that. I have no idea if the blond aged well. Physical beauty is transient. Elizabeth Sladen was very pretty, but she’s been dead about 5 years so her appearance has suffered I’m sure. I’ll lose a lot of weight after I die, especially if my wife has me cremated. Celluloid lasts longer than people. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0805207/?ref_=nv_sr_1 Recycling through the carbon cycle is independent of national borders but largely limited by planetary borders unless you are considering time scales large enough to say that we are all just “Star Stuff” to quote Carl Sagan.

So what makes a babe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMnjF1O4eH0

and that might trigger a Christmas wish https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUZqfByAOUs

I have some different ideas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj-UqKjOwwo

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Grasshopper, Do Not Be a Dragonfly

We had a fire at work yesterday.

But I don’t work at Fawlty Towers. I did have a bit of an adrenaline rush when I realized that there actually was a fire. And when that wore off I was really tired. And I still had most of my shift to get through, and the fire created more work for me. When I heard the alarm I went to check the alarm control panel. I saw that a pull station in an employee area had been pulled on the southeast part of the building. I was in the northwest part. I did a quick check of my area of the building to make sure everybody was out then I went outside and did a headcount at the NW collection point. There were three supervisors at the SE collection point. It took an unusually long time for the fire truck to arrive. We’re two blocks from the fire station. I found out later that we had had a false alarm fault in the system earlier in the day. We had fixed it, but the fire department didn’t know that it was fixed. What a time for the alarm to malfunction. No one was hurt. A bale of cardboard next to the building had caught on fire, but it was outside of the building. A coworker posted pictures on Facebook.

Only one bale caught on fire. I ended up rearranging about 20 further away from the building. I guess I needed some practice driving the pallet movers.

People do have a habit of not thinking about what they’re doing when they get curious. That’s why I chose the title. A coworker, since retired, once told me that it was really easy to shoot dragonflies with a BB gun. The BB moves slow enough that the dragonfly sees it and goes to see what it is, but then can’t get out of the way fast enough.

And now for politics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Licinius_Crassus

The fire departments in Rome were privately owned. If your house caught on fire Crassus would send over his fire department. They would make offers to buy before they would put the fire out. If the owner wouldn’t sell they would watch it burn.

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And The High Horse Climbs the Soapbox Again.

Does equine hygiene suffer during marijuana consumption?

No

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/high%20horse

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/soapbox

Now, on to politics. I admit my liberal bias. Can we afford to pay for college for those that can handle the academics? Can we afford to pay for high school? Can we afford to pay for any school? How much school is necessary. That is the question. Post secondary school shouldn’t cost orders of magnitude more than secondary school. I completed a BA in 1984. I paid off my debt by 1990. I couldn’t do that now. I don’t have a good answer as to why it costs so much more now. Perhaps grade inflation has caused tuition inflation. I think society benefits from a well educated populace. If that takes longer now, then it should be available. Compulsory education laws have been around for a long time BECAUSE society benefits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_education

Minimum wage laws, should there be a minimum wage and what should it be? That depends. It depends on what your goal is. It ties into a bunch of different questions. Are child labor laws bad? If you own a small business you might want you kid to help out at a young age and begin learning the family business. That is not always a bad thing. Hiring 10 year old kids to work in mines or in factory machines because they’re small is not considered a good idea by most. Ironically, the first wage laws were not minimum wages but maximum wages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labor_laws_in_the_United_States

A modern solution to maximum wages would be taxes. Or it would have been a solution before taxes became a dirty word. The minimum wage laws kind of went hand in hand with child labor laws and compulsory education. Workplace safety came in about that time too. Upton Sinclair wrote “The Jungle” in the hopes of promoting socialism. Instead it helped push along the creation of the FDA. With no regulations neither food nor drugs were particularly safe. http://www.gmptrainingsystems.com/files/u1/pdf/TR_and_Pure_Food.pdf

Jerome K. Jerome wrote around the turn of the century. At times he was hilarious. Other times he was dead somber, kind of depressing. Maybe I’ll be funny next time. A lot of the observations JKJ makes are not dated and fit well today too. People haven’t changed. I think James Thurber must have been influenced by him. The style is similar.

Welcome

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Broad Vistas

I have many peculiarities. Time is one of them. Hot babes, who qualifies? Subjective evaluations follow. Is that an evaluation of physical appearance? Is it an evaluation of… …. BODY TEMPERATURE.

I desire a cool environment. AC is a must. Unless you have a pool. That would be acceptable. A kiddie pool is useful.

If all else fails a horse trough will suffice, but cow drool is truly disgusting.

Agnes Morehead, Francis Bavier, Angela Lansbury, were absolutely totally hot in their day.

That day continues to exist in the time continuum. Raquel Welch is an exception. Some are timelessly sexy like Raquel and Sophia Loren. Mae West was sexy right up to her death. In Heaven I might come up and see her sometime.

The passion of flesh for flesh out weighs the passion of intellect for intellect. Base desires sometimes rule, but they might look for justification.

It would seem that I am unfortunate in desiring females that are not coincident with my timeline. It’s a curse. Even into the future.

Soapbox Time, Let’s See How Many People I can Piss Off

I see a lot of stuff written about people who could work but won’t.

I read stuff about wanting to do drug testing for welfare recipients.

I see posts touting no benefits for illegals.

I hear moral outrage.

Who would defend the immoral?

Okay.

You know that costs money don’t you?

To those who could work but won’t, is your job being a burglar? Are you chemist making meth but you don’t make tons of it because you’re too lazy? I doubt that El Chappo is lazy. If he comes in illegally to the US and we incarcerate him, he will be receiving the benefits of prison lodging food and health care. AND WE WILL BE PAYING FOR IT. Not to mention that the tougher on crime we try to be will mean paying for additional prisons, guards, and their associated expenses. Ambitious criminals can only be contained by ambitious law enforcement.

Welfare shouldn’t allow people to use money for drugs and get food with stamps. Sounds reasonable, but drug testing costs money. You had better hope you take enough people off welfare to pay for the testing, otherwise you’re just providing free drug testing. But it isn’t free. It will be paid for also.

Would you say I’m defending the immoral by not wanting to pay for tough tactics? In the olden times when people weren’t coddling criminals they didn’t get buried with those expenses.

No, they didn’t. Those most common punishment was being run out of town and in earlier times, banishment. Those are very cheap inexpensive ways of dealing with troublemakers. Where would you want them sent. BTW, Australia got it’s start that way, but I don’t think they will take more now.

Living in a society is not cheap. Writing was invented to record taxes.

Tolerating immorality is cheaper than forcing compliance.

Just had to say that.

I Attempted to Make a Bung Wrench. I Failed

Bung wrenches open bung holes. They are not medical devices. That is not speculation. That would just be speculums.

Ba-bum! drumbeat there

Opening drums is done by removing the bung from the bung hole. That is not always easy without a bung wrench. Now I wasn’t opening any drums the other day, but I was working on a Major Fawcett problem. My kitchen faucet was dripping and I decided to fix it. I’ll quote what I posted on Facebook.

Worked on a project today. My kitchen faucet has been dripping for awhile. If it’s not much it isn’t a big deal in Iowa. It just makes it that much less likely your pipes will freeze. The drip rate recently got worse and I decided to replace it. *I* had installed the current faucet myself 20 years and 6 weeks ago. Yes I know that. I’m kind of anal about record keeping. I looked at it. I went to Blains and bought a new one. Looking at it I remembered thinking that it would be a good idea to spend a little more and get a more solidly made one with more brass and less plastic. Today my thought was, the major part of this project will be getting the old faucet out. After that I should be able to install, clean it up and leak check in about a half an hour. I was absolutely right. The first three hours consisted of laying on my back in a mixture of windex, Mr Clean, floor soap, interspersed with holding tools in contorted positions with water, rust, lime scale, and tools falling on my head. The last half hour was installing and cleaning. The extra money I had spent on brass had ended up going for corrosion instead. That was one tough faucet to get out. I really don’t plan on living long enough to have to do it again. By then it would kill me if I wasn’t already dead.

So, what does that have to do with bung wrenches? The locking nuts on the bottom of the faucet had a shape that reminded me of bungs I had removed from barrels of other stuff. I don’t own my own bung wrench. I tried to cobble something that looked like a bung wrench. It did look right. But it was not strong enough.

I finished the job without having to fix any new leaks, no leaks runs or errors!

The next day my arms were sore any time I put my arms up over me. So I didn’t keep doing that. Some people put their arms up quite a lot. Some people are into BD/SM too. Not me though, it’s just not my thing. I have read about it and talked to a few people that were into it. I am into reading and talking. In the mid 70’s Club magazine had so-so pictorials but really weird articles. It provided a drastic stark difference between the people that said “I read it for the articles” and the people who ACTUALLY did read it for the articles. It was amusing to ask the former group if they had read Karl Steiner’s column. It didn’t matter which answer they gave I would ask them, “Well what’s his column about in that issue?” I almost always enjoyed that gag.

Karl Steiner is a very common name. I had trouble finding any references to quote. The following sites include the table of contents for various issues. Beyond that I don’t know much about them. On some pictures you can also read the cover headlines.

http://www.myerscollectibles.com/store/item/1d0vp/Mens_Magazines/Club_Magazine_Vol_1_1_February_1975.html

http://www.magizine.org/CLUBmagCLUB197603.htm

http://www.magizine.org/CLUBmagCLUB197606.htm

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Endangered? Establishment RINOS are as Endangered as Jumbo Shrimp

In “On Liberty” John Stuart Mill wrote that when differing ideas are discussed both sides should be defended by true believers.

The argument being that a person defending a position that they don’t agree with won’t defend that position well. Certainly sounds reasonable to me. Reasonableness has very little to do with today’s politics. But some have found a way to claim that they are following that advice while still ensuring that the correct view seems the most logical. You get an intelligent articulate genius to defend the side you agree with and an inarticulate raging moron to defend the incorrect view. People that start from different places reach different conclusions.

Philosophy, intellectualism, they tend to be viewed negatively. Being called an egghead isn’t necessarily an insult, but the “Average Joe” views eggheads as out of touch with the real world. No, Average Joe doesn’t realize that he too is an egghead in that everybody has a philosophy. Philosophy is how you look at the world. For example, if you find yourself on Gilligan’s Island do you: try to build a raft or light signal fires? Or do you try to make life on the island as comfortable as you can? THOSE ARE OPPOSING PHILOSOPHIES!

Colonize or seek rescue are different goals. Is one evil and they other good? Can you be friends across that chasm? Either or both of those strategies could fail. Failure is an option. But do you TRY to make the “Wrong” strategy fail? The polarization of politics is making the other side fail. Everybody wants to have a good life. What a good life is and how to attain it are debatable.

I am a liberal Democrat. RINO means Republican In Name Only. Establishment Republican means a Republican that is more in agreement established traditional Republican views as opposed to conservative views. I think. Which is exactly why JSM said you need true believers to defend a view. The Republican Party Platform prior to 1960 is pretty much opposite of the views of conservatives. I would consider the older views as “Real” Republicans and the newer views as RINO. The supporters of the newer positions should rename their party as the “Conservative” party or the “TEA” party and leave the establishment Republicans to claim the name. In my opinion establishment RINO is an oxymoron just like Jumbo Shrimp. Since I have no stake, it’s just an opinion.

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