Signs of the Times?

 Seems today that both my computers are having problems. I'm using Quantum Fiber and it seems like every game or traffic intensive program (videos etc.) is slugging around in the mud speeds. I'll probably connect to the Comcast connection. We still have Comcast until we decide that Quantum Fiber is going to work. We are using the slowest speed Comcast has available to keep our costs down. Adding Quantum Fiber to the cost of our Comcast is less than it costs one of our friends for just one High-speed connection on Comcast. And Quantum Fiber is supposed to be the highest speed one can get for the price of $35/month.

Finally, Fiber to the home that was promised in the early 1990's. Yet, here we are with serious problems...

It's not our software, it's your hardware

 I have been a tech since 1982 when I started working at Turf Paradise, a horse race track, as a video tech setting up and repairing everything from timing systems for the races, to camera equipment, sound systems, phone systems, etc. Computers were relatively new to the scene at that time. But one thing remains the same, no one wants to hear that "their" realm is at fault for failures. 

So many times in my life I have heard the statement, "It's not our problem, it's yours!" Way more times than I can count have I found that 'my' equipment is working perfectly, it's the software accessing it that has not been configured correctly.

Once again I am facing that beast, doing all my troubleshooting, finding my equipment works perfectly and #QuantumFiber has protocols in their system that won't let my equipment connect to the Internet. Not all my equipment, just one, and then another that I use to bypass their lack of connectivity.

No need to call, they will again tell me that it is my equipment, even though I can connect with Comcast.net with ALL my equipment, even the one rejected by Quantum Fiber.

#quantumfiber, #internetaccess, #comcast, #monopolies

Daily Magic

Yesterday I saw a leaf, unusual in that it looked like someone painted it, partially, like a drip of paint from a painter's brush.

Then, the scientist touched it. It disappeared.

Vote? WTF

 Those of us waking up to the capitalist empire and the sham any government embracing capitalism has become cannot in good conscience vote for either of the empire managers the banking systems have put in place. 

Our choices:

Biden = WWIII
Trump = Civil War

WWIII spells the doom of all humans on this planet.

Civil War destroys the US of Ameriakkka but leaves intact most of the rest of the world. 

I choose saving the rest of the world instead of a Scorched Earth scenario. I actually will be voting my conscience with Jill Stein. I cannot vote for a Capitalist Puppet. Good luck with your Lesser of two evils, because you really don't know how evil that "lesser" really is. You have been blinded by propaganda starting with your first foray into a public school classroom and probably by blinded parents who knew no different because they have been subjected to lies and deceptions of the public education systems, aka Propaganda Indoctrination Centers, as well. 

The one subject they have effectively erased from the curriculum to make sure you never have the tools to oppose their pap is "Critical Thinking". You cannot get that until you get to college, and by then most of your opinions have already been formed, often by illogical "belief" systems. Get a clue, the Empire "Owners" don't want an educated in thought populace. That would be too hard to control. No, they have religion to put blinders on people. Whether it be Zionism or Nationalism, they have you by the gonads.

Last.fm Leaderboard

 Most obscure artists... 

Last.fm calls me "Underground" for Martin Best Medieval Ensemble... LOL

 

 

And then on the Leaderboard, I'm first in the number of Scrobbles compared to my friends on Last.fm.

So, here I am ripping CD's this week that we bought from groups we've seen and I hit all the top scores. I am a bit surprised that my friend in Brazil is ahead of me in the most obscure since many of the groups I've been adding to my library are only "Portland, Oregon USA" groups. But then I also see that many of my plays are not scrobbled to Last.fm and I'm not sure why. Mainstream albums are, but the local productions are not always, even when they have a barcode uniquely identifying them. Last.fm probably has a database that screens scrobbles to only those they know about. Also, some of the music store promo discs are not scrobbled. 

So, Last.fm is not really a true measure of the music you've been playing, but better than no measurements.

Shaking Off The Fear

It is cold and wet. Stellar's Jays are not going far from their home in the tree tops and just a few came to eat at the feeders today. Haven't seen my crows either. Very cold and no let-up of the rain. I'll be keeping an eye out for the crows and feed them when I see them.

I know I anthropomorphize in the descriptions of my avian friends. I don't think it's a sin. It is the only way I can describe to my human friends what I am observing in my avian friends. I do try to adopt the view as a different species than human and do my best to have no judgments.  

That said, I do have an attitude towards one jay who seems to feel it necessary to "alarm" squawk at me all the time. I have been scolding that one whenever they're around squawking at me. There has been benefits to my scolding them. That one is quieting down a bit. Especially when they find that I still give them peanuts.

Penelope continues to say thank you, as well as a couple of others. There's one who flies to the feeder, never touching down and takes a peanut out of the tuna can while hovering for just a fraction of a second and is gone in a heartbeat. So many different personalities and styles of motion.

One thing I have seen consistently is in the younger ones: shivering, fluffing up their feathers just before they try to get a peanut from the feeder when I'm standing there. I think it is a process of mind that allows them to shake off the fear of coming that close to such a huge beast as me. They always do it just before attempting to fly to the feeder.

And then there is Penelope, who has taken peanuts from my hand. She is the one who thanks me for the peanuts, while on the feeder. It is a strange relationship I have with her. She is the one tossing the smaller peanuts out of the feeder in favor of the larger peanuts. Those are the ones the crows are getting, and probably a squirrel or two.

I have seen my crow take a peanut from the jay feeder. I originally tried to make a squirrel proof feeder for the crows out of some 'found' materials. It wasn't something the crows would be interested in because the branches were very thin, but strong. Jays love it. Jays hop, crows walk, ...and really, are clumsy. And they know their limitations and don't, usually, wind up on something they'll knock down. The usual time they do that is when there is definitely food there and no one is watching. But, I digress...

The crows give in to the jays' demands, jays are tough birds. They give Barred Owls hell often. By feeding my jays the way I'm feeding them I am able to keep them away from our "other" feeding areas. We have some suet cages and a couple other seed feeders around for the variety of birds that come through our world here.

The way I see it, if the crow lets me know he/she=xe is there I distract the jays by filling the tuna can Jay feeder with peanuts. I also fill all the single peanut feeders (4 of them) and walk away. As soon as I leave there is holy pandemonium; all the jays are grabbing a peanut and finding some place to hide it to get another as quickly as possible. There're too many peanuts to go through for them to possibly follow me to the front yard. I drop a handful on the ground in the front yard and walk quickly back watching for jays following me. If I see one I can call them back to the feeders. LOL

In the meantime my crow has put out the call and 3 other crows come down and swiftly take all the peanuts and are gone. It's one of the most fun games I've ever played and the crows and I are playing it against the jays.

Corvids and Feeding Time

 Crows are such a persecuted lot. Humans routinely chase them and harm them for their forays into yards for scraps of food where ever they can find it. 

It was a curious thing to see today when I fed the Stellar's Jays. I have this routine where I fill a small tuna can on the feeder with peanuts and place them in the other single peanut holders. I then walk to the front yard and look to see if my crows are watching. If they make themselves known, I put a handful of peanuts out for them. I do not want the Jays to get used to going to the front yard (or anywhere else for that matter) for food. If my crow sees me xe calls their friends and they quickly pick up the peanuts from the ground before the jays are done fighting in the back yard at the feeders. Well, the crows finished before the jays were done and one crow came back to the jay feeders and was trying to take a peanut from the ground where the jays 'purposefully' dropped the smaller peanuts in favor of the larger ones. As xe was approaching their stance was one of ducking, avoiding being attacked by the jays; this big bird, being scared by the likes of the Stellar's Jays.