Bought Some More Ink

Ok. That was enough time just sitting on my duff.

Over the past month or so, I dabbled a bit with helping dig up at the Santa Rita ruins,

Ready To Break In A New Pair of Gloves

playing like Indiana Jones - only without the whip and other excitement. Fun, but not really my cup of tea more than occasionally, not like Colleen - she's bucking for a promotion. We did it three days. Colleen has probably missed three days;

Watching Belize Water Service

BWS Dig, Digging and More

install a 6" main up our road, all the way  to Mr. Quinto's house. Not that we have any intention of jumping on the metered water band wagon. Our well is plenty adequate, thank you very much. But, as they say, it will help if we ever decide to sell. You know,"we have access to 'town water' as a selling point, I guess;

and watching the BDF train

BDF Training in Corozal  Bay

with US special ops folks for some anti-drug smuggling activities.

Let's see what else?

 Books that I've been reading...

• The Revisionists by Thomas Mullen. Interesting take on time travel. There's a war between those who want to revise history and those who want to leave it as it was.
• The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser. About those personalized adverts and the personalized web experience. It ain't all it's cracked up to be.
• The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson. An alternate history - one of my favorite genres when done right. History, religion and society centered on the Black Death if it had been more severe. I'm only into it by eight or so pages.

The Isuzu's spare money detector has been functioning more than perfectly. I'd like to whack it with a hammer if I could find it. The car's been in the shop twice now - within a month to get the head reground from warping because of overheating. First it was the radiator that went kerflooy and resulted in the marathon towing exercise. Then it was the bottom radiator hose (I think) that let it piss all over the ground. I managed to get it within 20 feet of Rick's shop so we were able to push it in so he could work on it.

About the personalized adverts on the web. I shop fairly regularly at  places like Inyo.com, a pool supply place. It's weird. Every time I go to a web site and have a personalized ad for Inyo.com, I feel like never patronizing them again, because it feels really intrusive. Except, having read the Filter Bubble, I understand what's going on and can get past it. It still pisses me off, but I have more of a handle now on the game that is being played. It's only going to get worse, so we may as well get used to it. And figure out a way to play it back, somehow. Mess up their statistics.

That's it for now.

Cheers,

We're Reduced To Actually... Reading

Yesterday, about 4:00 PM, or so, our pleasant and mostly mindless TV watching came to an abrupt halt. Yep, Star Choice or Shaw Direct or whatever, according to rumor and actual fact, pulled the plug on satellite boxes physically located outside of Canada.

Boring Movie, Not Much Action

 Not for everybody, I guess. Some of our neighbors still have the ability to watch hockey and F1 (Formula One for the great unwashed) and cooking and remodeling and the Cubs. I guess they must have 'shared' connections. That is, an account up north and an additional box or two that they've brought down here to paradise.

Anyway, we're re-discovering this wonderful thing that you actually do with your hands and eyes and inside your brain where there's this wonderful undocumented feature called imagination. Where, if you're skilled enough at 'reading', why, it's almost like watching a movie, complete with color, sound and action. Unfortunately, there's no advertisements - Oh, wait. That is a benefit not a problem.

A Little Bit Of Our Library

 So, this means that I'll probably finish 'Rise and Fall of the Third Reich' in the next day or two, and then, actually have to explore some of the almost 600 other books that I have on my eReader, and some of the many other actual books that we have virtually all over our house.

My Sony eReader

In all reality, this is actually a boon. We suddenly have much more time to devote to one of our favorite activities - reading. What a joy!

We are actually missing some of the shows I mentioned above. Well, maybe not the hockey or F1, although some of my neighbors are hooked on those sorts of programs. We'll keep plugging away at this 'reading' thing and let you know how we adjust over the next few days and if a solution to the satellite thing becomes apparent or not.

I wonder what my next book is going to be. I can't wait! Just my luck. This'll probably be the year the Cubs go all the way!... (in my dreams).