Back in the mid 90s I had an unusual experience, in which I was caught in the blast-corona of Operation Sundevil – the Secret Service’s attempt to gain relevance in cybersecurity [wik]. My role was small but it made me realize that the government, at that time, was ignorant enough that they could easily be stampeded into doing stupid things, a form of “terrorism by stupid cop” which I later re-framed as “a denial of clue attack.”
Field-expedient repairs are sometimes expected. You haven’t got all the gear to make a proper fix, so you log a maintenance report saying something like, “I did not have the correct threaded bolt to replace it correctly, so I forced the wrong bolt on to the nut with a pipe-wrench, just to hold the thing together until we got home.”
I loathe the whole christmas-expectation-of-being-given-things, and I usually try to break Hallmark’s lock on my time by just doing whatever I want and sometimes randomly giving people stuff.
[Content Warning: Poop, Medical Details]
Yesterday I discovered that I have a sort of a rareish medical condition. From the sound of it, its a medical condition that’s easy enough to have; and I ought to be able to not have it happen again if I am thoughtful.
I’ve set a reminder in my calendar and I’ll do the googling and analysis so you don’t have to. Assuming we all survive, that is.
The studies are going to continue for years, and (as always seems to be the case with medical stuff) they will agree, disagree, and maybe agree. In the meantime, what is a human to do?
Warning: I get a bit ranty.
A surrealist is walking down the street, and sees a banana peel in his path; he says, “Mon Dieu! I am going to fall down again!” and keeps walking.
It seems that the current trend in conflict is not to merely defeat your foe, but to humiliate them afterward.
Wednesday night, the corn monster came and chomped all the corn.
Let me introduce you to the “intelligence Catch-22.” In case you’re not familiar with Heller’s Catch-22, from the brilliant book by that name, it goes like this:
You cannot possibly get a medical discharge from the military based on insanity, because only insane people want to be in the military; therefore if you want to be discharged from the military you are sane and therefore your discharge is denied.