What does Morgenmuffel mean?
In German, a Morgenmuffel is a person who is extremely grumpy in the mornings.
“If the good lord wanted us to see the sunrise, She would’ve scheduled is closer to noon.”
#Austin
#SanAntonio
Better, the fun version?
“It’s been ten years and maybe more….”
But this isn’t about classic rock or old relationships.
It’s the nine-minute un-audio file, seen here — hacking the higher mind.
Robert Parker passed in, like, 2010 or so. I won’t fact check. There were close to 40 novels from just the “Spenser” franchise alone. Read a bunch of them before going back to Boston, then kept reading them, as they were short, fun, and bitter-sweet. Sly, sardonic, and the bulk of the literary estate must make its money from TV reruns, as there were at least two spin-offs that I’m aware of, plus movies, and everything else.
As a general rule, the latter novels have been a little easier to read while mimicking the style of the originals. So when a new one popped up, I was happy to give it a spin, a moment’s respite from the daily grind and doomscrolling.
Because I live in a culturally wealthy place (San Antonio, TX), I have two excellent local public libraries with full digital catalogs. Two public libraries with digital access — I’m rich! Also means that digital library copies are quick, easy to get, and fast read with the infinite scroll. No page-turning animations for me!
Sardonic, dry wit.
“No,” Belson said. He held up a hand. “Sorry, I meant to say ‘Fuck no.’ I think it was you who told me you didn’t believe in coincidences, because there’s no way God would leave that much shit to chance.” Page 88.
Street, but educated street.
There it is:
But as I made my way south toward Boston, I found myself recalling a terrific line I’d read once from the old baseball manager Buck Showalter.
“I’m not paranoid,” he said. “Just extremely alert.”
So, too, was I these days. Page 218.
Literature, then baseball. Accurate observation, too, nice to have a decent source. “Showalter has become the winningest active manager in MLB never to win a World Series.” (wikipedia)
Not paranoid, just extremely alert.
It’s a well-turned out book. Fun to read, quick, thoughtful, plenty of action. Bodies pile up like they do in Hamlet.
“This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (I.iii.80)
There was this thoroughly enticing ad for a used typewriter shop. Good, I suppose, serviceable, used manual typewriters. I’ll admit I’m enthralled with the notion of using a manual typewriter, having used keyboards for all of this career, but as it turns out? I’m a questionable typist, and the manual typewriters, as cool as one would be? Doesn’t work for me. It’s the most seductive material, though, and if I’m not careful, I can get sucked into a spiral of looking at the images of the sleek, portable, manual typewriters with their imaginary keys clacking away in the night. One of the first add-on pieces of software I used? It made a typewriter noise, with every keystroke, and return key at the end of the sentence or paragraph was a real carriage return sound. There are even, to this day, outfits that make old typewriter-like keyboards with modern connectivity, and there’s even one that turns a tablet into a typewriter-like word processor. As much as this satisfies my natural Sagittarius desires for a desire to return to simpler times, hardware that is less dependent on software, and ornate working tools? Does any of that really affect my output? The answer, dear Sagittarius, is it is not the tools, it’s about what we do with what tools we already have at hand.
We talked about this. Made strongly-worded suggestions. We discussed possible scenarios, likely outcomes, and the way this might just work out, or, in the this example, not work out. It’s about “pre-planning.” I don’t do a lot of pre-planning myself, but what I do?
When Mercury is Retrograde? Always have a back-up plan. It’s that simple.
I tried to switch internet providers just prior to Mercury’s little backward tumble. It was a cost-savings, cost-cutting plan. I have two inputs for network access, two wired location, two holes in the exterior walls. One is for cable, the other is for phone/internet. Both offer fast broadband access.
The actual notices were AT&T, the Death Star itself, used the first fiber cable laid here. No idea, no supporting evidence, but the throughput on the Death Star has been better than any other options, and for a while, it was cheapest.
Persistent price increases annoy the bejeebers out of me.
The cable company, used to be Time Warner Road Runner, kept plying me with offers, so I caved and tried it. Which meant, different input to the home-wireless set-up — the other hole in the wall.
There’s a closed network for the doorbell, thermostat, and two surveillance cams. Then there’s a guest network, no range to it, but also not password protected. Finally, there’s my own devices, TV, radio, tablets, phone, computers, along with those network attached storage devices for Apple’s automated back-up plan.
I used that Apple automated back-up for years. Decades? It’s saved me more than once, but one of the Airport Time Capsules, as they were named, quit working.
So I reconfigured the whole network to proceed with the service change. Got it all working. Maybe a year or two back, I bought a cheap hard drive and plugged it into one of the Apple routers so that the drive could serve as an additional back-up device. Configured it with a few point and clicks, and let it run, forgotten.
During the reconfiguration to upgrade the internet access, I unhooked that drive, and it was scrambled, inadvertently erased at some point in the process.
Unplugged the drive, attached it to the main machine, erased the drive’s contents, formatted it, and then, plugged it back into a different Apple Air-thing router (thing).
There are aspects of the arrangements that I’m still struggling to get to work correctly. However, in its current format, there’s a back-up, then a remote back-up, with all of the mission-critical, time-sensitive material protected by an air-gap. None of this is fool-proof, but for now, it works, after a fashion.
Always have a back-up plan when Mercury is retrograde.
If it’s fool-proof, well, evidence suggest they invent better fools.
Hard Drive
Router
Hard Drive
Router
#Mercury
Guiding Light Healing Arts
Hilton Garden Inn
8101 Pat Booker Road
Live Oak, TX
11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Today in San Antonio — by the forum — with some answers to questions….
Sunday! In San Antonio!
Curious as to the astrological details?
There are two sources of data, seeing me in San Antonio this Sunday — or the weekly horoscopes.
Guiding Light Healing Arts
Hilton Garden Inn
8101 Pat Booker Road
Live Oak, TX
11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
This Sunday in San Antonio — by the forum — with some answers to questions….
Sunday! In San Antonio!
Curious as to the astrological details?
There are two sources of data, seeing me in San Antonio this Sunday — or the weekly horoscopes.
Rolling back to pre-pandemic prices!
In case you’re wondering.
