I got my early evening to bed yesterday ─ I now do not recall exactly, but I doubt that it was as late as 8:45 p.m.
I am unsure if I heard my younger brother finally arrive home ─ probably not. The same goes for my wife, who had worked late that afternoon and through much of the evening at her friend's Thai restaurant.
I may not have even been aware that she was home until around 12:45 a.m. when I became awake enough to be curious on the time, and lifted my bandana blindfold to find that the lamp at my wife's bedside was turned on, even though the bedroom door was closed.
I quietly rose and took a bathroom break, noticing that my brother was not yet to bed. My wife seemed to be here in my computer room ─ the small room immediately adjacent to our bedroom.
I could see that my brother was not in his chair downstairs in the living room, and was probably rinsing out his beer mug in preparation to finally get to bed. I heard him engaging with my eldest stepson in the exaggerated conversational style my brother adopts when he is drunk.
I got back to bed and managed a little further sleep, finding myself awake again about an hour later. It was then that I decided to rise and soon get to work adding some content into the new post I have begun at one of my six hosted websites.
As I was pulling on my pants, my wife came into the bedroom ─ she was set to retire for the night, confessing that she had been up enjoying three glasses of wine even though she had to work again with a start late in the morning.
I believe that it was lightly raining outside; and it continued to do so throughout much of the later day. This is the second in which I of course could not benefit from any sunning, but it sure does free up some time to do other things.
I worked on my post until I began to suffer an unpleasant decline in well-being ─ it seemed related to eyestrain, and it was serious enough that I had sufficient concern that cerebral pathology was possible by way of the development of something like a stroke.
So even though I had not worked as productively as I had intended to, I was probably back into bed by 5 a.m.
For some reason, 8:30 a.m. seems to be my limit for further sleep when I sit up overnight like this. Nevertheless, I held fast in bed until near 9 a.m. before quietly rising and coming here to my computer.
As I typically do on weekdays, I joined my brother at 10 a.m. to put our Android TV Box into operation (he doesn't understand its intricacies).
Anon my dear wife rose, and shortly after 11 a.m. she was on her drive to the restaurant. I will be surprised if she returns home later ─ she typically spends her weekends somewhere in Vancouver (such is our sorry marriage).
One of the T.V. episodes my brother and I watched was the first season finale of Channel Zero ─ the first season was in fact a complete series of its own titled Candle Cove.
I surely do hope that the remaining three seasons' storylines are improvements on this one. I found that it grew to become most ponderous, with constant unnecessary and disinterestingly slow scans by the camera.
The main male character was also quite boring, with no physical prowess whatsoever. He was utterly ineffectual in terms of 'manly' action or activity.
The concluding episode was just too impossible quite apart from the supernatural element. For one thing, it made no sense that the main character's mother knew to smother him while he lay unconscious in a field ─ you see, by killing her son, his evil childhood twin would be unable to leave whatever hell he existed in. Had he left it, he intended to possess his now-adult twin's body in order to assume his identity.
A few whispered words from the main character's little girl were enough to get this guy's mother to suffocate her adult son as he lay unconscious in a field? She was that willing to embrace this insanity, following the homicidal instructions from her young granddaughter?
I don't bloody think so! It was ridiculous.
Please Channel Zero ─ get better than this.
I want to change topics.
In yesterday's post, I described how I was involved in having my laptop finally get updated from Windows 7 to Windows 10 ─ for free, of course. That process was still underway when I published that post.
Well, it was a success ─ the upgrade occurred without any hitches.
Now I'm wondering if I should uninstall Windows 7 to free up more data space on the laptop.
And I have just now discovered that I won't need to do that ─ an automatic deletion of Windows 7 will happen after 10 days following the upgrade. This is from an article at Support.Microsoft.com titled Delete your previous version of Windows:
Ten days after you upgrade to Windows 10, your previous version of Windows will be automatically deleted from your PC. However, if you need to free up disk space, and you’re confident that your files and settings are where you want them to be in Windows 10, you can safely delete it yourself. Keep in mind that you'll be deleting your Windows.old folder, which contains files that give you the option to go back to your previous version of Windows. Deleting your previous version of Windows can’t be undone.And here I've been thinking that ever since upgrading my desktop computer to Windows 10 early in the year, my machine was still burdened with Windows 7 somewhere deep inside its core. I have always been surprised why my computer has been running as effectively as it has with the two operating systems burdening it.
I find this OS deletion to be quite amazing, actually. The majority of computer owners probably wouldn't have done the job for themselves.
And now I want to switch topics yet again.
This past Sunday (August 16, 2020) at 4 a.m. I sent out the following E-mail titled "Coronavirus Irrationality" to over 50 people:
Here’s what can happen when government paranoids take control of you life.As I recall, only three people bothered with a response (all favourably). But one of the three got quite animated in his reply:
Imagine if you got tested for COVID-19 infection just for the heck of it, and not because you were feeling unwell.
Then the test results indicated that you had the antibodies, and you were told you were going to have to be quarantined ─ self-isolation is no longer sufficient.
This happened to Elizabeth Linscott in Hardin County, Kentucky, a young married mother of a baby. She got tested because she was planning to travel to Michigan to see her parents ─ and her grandparents also wanted to see her.
The health department contacted her and “requested” she sign documents that would limit her from travelling anywhere unless she called the health department first.
In other words, she would be unable to leave home for absolutely any reason at all without first notifying the health department and getting their permission. She could not even nip out to the store or even go next door to have coffee with a neighbour without prior communication with the authorities.
So she declined, and sent a written statement to the health department that read, “I will do my best to stay home, as I do every other time I get sick. But I cannot comply to having to call the public health department everytime that I need to go out and do something. It’s my right and freedoms to go where I please and not have to answer to anyone for it. There is no pandemic and with a survival rate of 99.9998% I’m fine. I will continue to avoid the elderly, just like PRIOR guidelines state, try to stay home, get rest, get medicine, and get better. I decline.”
The title of this brief video news report says what came next:
On a related note, there is even movement afoot in the States to make coronavirus vaccination mandatory once an approved version gets released ─ this article is from August 11: Doctors lay out plan to ‘punish’ people who refuse coronavirus vaccine: ‘There is no alternative’.
Do you really think Canada would move in a different direction if this was to happen?
“...don't allow religious or personal objections.…”
Apparently there are more than 200 COVID-19 vaccines in development as drug companies race to be first to develop a successful vaccine and, so far, clinical trials have produced mixed findings.
A science writer by the name of Ethan Siegel even proclaimed that the public should not be looking at any scientific research of any kind ─ we’re too stupid to properly interpret it:
'It’s absolutely foolish to think that you, a non-expert who lacks the very scientific expertise necessary to evaluate the claims of experts, are going to do a better job than the actual, bona fide experts of separating truth from fiction or fraud. When we “do the research for ourselves,” we almost always wind up digging in deeper to our own knee-jerk positions, rather than deferring to the professional opinions of the consensus of experts.'
Also, where coronavirus and vaccines are specifically concerned:
'It means that you need to be humble, and admit that you, yourself, lack the necessary expertise to evaluate the science before you. It means that you need to be brave enough to turn to the consensus of scientific experts and ask, legitimately, what we know at the present stage. And it means you need to be open-minded enough to understand that your preconceptions are quite likely to be wrong in some, many, or possibly even all ways.'
It seems that in this guy’s eyes, most of us are so stupid that when we seek to inform ourselves, we “are quite likely to [be] wrong in some, many, or possibly even all ways.”
So don’t think or form your own opinions and beliefs. Just comply with the “experts” and become part of the blind herd ─ question nothing you are told by the “experts”. It’s the only way you can be assured of not being wrong in “some, many or possibly even all ways.”
Has the long-delayed 1984, then, virtually arrived?
This whole scamdemic is a farce. Is there a virus? Yes. Is it serious? With a survivability rate of 99.97%, I’m gonna have to go with not really. The worldwide infection rate is 0.003%, with 0.03% of those infected dying. Where I work, we’ve had an “outbreak” of covid. 5 cases out of over 500 staff, clients and support staff. 0.01% infection rate. 3 of the 5 have mild flu like symptoms, the other 2 have the regular flu like symptoms. None are hospitalized. Now mandatory for staff to wear useless cloth masks while working. Did I mention the ones that got infected were training at an off site facility and wore full facemasks and face shields?I replied back:
Client at work was freaking out, saying “OMG, we just hit 20 million cases last week!” To which I replied: “I know, right? Only 40 million more to reach the number of H1N1 cases in the US in 2009.”
Long story short, the media and government has gone completely overboard in the overreaction to this “pandemic”. I don’t buy into the huge number of conspiracy theories floating around, but the overreaction, and near police state is far more scary to me than the disease. When I was forced to wear the mask at work, I had a number of supervisors ask me if I was OK, as the could see me struggling with anxiety and breathing with the mask on. I told them no, I couldn’t handle the mask. They told me it was “for my protection”. I told them, bullshit, it’s to placate the clients to make them think we’re doing something to protect them. The masks are useless. I’d rather get the f***ing disease. They left me alone for the rest of the shift.
Amen to everything you said, dear J****!Then his final response:
As far as I'm concerned, it's a ploy to make everyone affiliated with the pharmaceutical industry get fabulously wealthy ─ including those that the industry gets in bed with by getting them to prostitute themselves because they can't resist the money being offered to them.
The 'health authorities' are spewing the same lies and deceit that they have always done where vaccines are concerned ─ that is, that the vaccine is our best defence against catching the disease.
Really? What about a strong immune system? Why aren't they promoting that?
Not a word.
And how often do we hear that obesity ─ even mild obesity ─ escalates the chance of death among the infected? That can't be said ─ being fat is supposed to be perfectly acceptable. Doctors aren't even supposed to tell a patient he or she is obese ─ it's offensive.
I'm sick of the whole damned farce.
I haven't even put on a mask. However, unlike you, I don't need to where my livelihood is concerned.
But what are you going to do once a vaccine gets approved, and you're told by your employer that you have no choice ─ everyone has to get vaccinated? I'm sure that's ahead, sadly.
I understand that Walmart Canada and maybe even Shopper's Drug Mart have mandated that customers have to wear masks. Well, I have no intention of frequenting any business that does this.
Our local transit has mandated masks, but I haven't used a bus or SkyTrain in a few years, so I'm once again unaffected.
The broad spread of ignorance out there is appalling ─ that's the true pandemic!
Exactly right, I refuse to wear a mask outside of work, and I bitch and moan about it when I am forced to do it. In fact, they just announced the mandated mask on my last shift for the week. I may be calling in sick for the next couple of weeks. .
Here’s the thing...they won’t tell us who the infected people are, even though everyone has figured it out by process of elimination. Maybe I’ll just have to self quarantine for 2 weeks “just in case”.
When it comes to vaccines, I get a flu shot every year for the last decade or more. It’s voluntary, and I have diabetes and asthma, so I’ll get it. I haven’t had the flu since I started getting it, and have never had any side effects. Make it mandatory, and I will fight it every step of the way.
Now this: Just got an email from the head boss at work telling us all to stay away from groups, or we can be fired. I’ll be in touch with the union, because not only does that sound like a grievance, it sounds like a violation of every Canadian’s right of association, both in terms of Labour, as well as private life. Pretty sure she just bit off more than she can chew.
Here’s another thing: One of the best boosters to our immune system is fresh air, exercise and sunlight. But the “authorities” all want us cowering in the basement. Makes no sense whatsoever.
I’ve lost 60 pounds since I got diagnosed with diabetes, and it’s made it so much easier to control my diabetes. I still only need to take pills, and exercise. I’ve changed my diet a little, but not severely like some people I know. I still have dessert from time to time, just not after every meal. My A1C and blood sugar levels have been well below the danger threshold.And finally, me:
I’ve walked out of restaurants and stores that tell me I need to wear a mask. I had an appointment to get my hair cut. Driving to Kelowna (I live in Penticton, now), they called to confirm the appointment and told me to bring a mask. I told them I’m halfway to Kelowna, and I don’t have a mask. They said that’s OK, you can buy one here. I told them F you, cancel my appointment. She was all offended, I told her I don’t care. I won’t do business that requires a muzzle that doesn’t do anything.
I’m fed up with everything about it.
You notice a large number of TV commercials featuring people wearing masks? More media subversion to make people think it’s “the new normal”. I will boycott any company that jumps on board with that, too.
I didn't know that you were diabetic ─ or that you had amassed enough weight to be able to lose 60 pounds of it!As I was working on those E-mail exchanges, formatting them for this post, my bad right eye suddenly started to react with alarming peculiarity.
From what you tell of your resistance to mandatory face masks, you're quite the staunch freedom fighter! I can easily imagine the consternation at that shop where you were journeying to keep a barbering appointment ─ the sheep out there just can't fathom why anyone would be adverse to this mandated new norm of compulsory face masking. That's probably why you were never even apprised about it when the appointment was first made ─ the clueless person you had first dealt with never even remotely imagined that anyone would have such strong objections about face masks that their face mask policy would merit being brought up as an initial conversational topic.
I can't say that I've noticed commercials yet that feature people wearing face masks ─ I watch T.V. shows via an Android TV Box, however, so I never have to put up with commercials. However, I do often watch some live T.V. by way of both the CBC and the CTV news channels, and I have seen a lot of the on-site news reporters wearing them. If actual commercials are out now as if face masks are indeed the new normal, this is getting truly sad.
I have noticed some buzz concerning the new T.V. season in that face masks are being incorporated right into the storylines that are now being filmed ─ even the futuristic vampire series Van Helsing that my brother and I have thus far followed.
Everyone is just going along with this nonsense as if it can't be helped and there is no other right and sensible choice because, of course, face masks are saving lives ─ yours, mine, and everyone around us we may come in contact with.
What rot.
And so many people don't even understand their application. I'm still seeing people wearing them who are out on an early morning walk in Nature settings ─ by early, I mean well before 7 a.m. There's no one else around them! Why the hell are they wearing a mask?
Your point about the essentialness of fresh air, activity, and sunlight in maintaining a strong immunity is spot on! Keeping holed up in one's home when no one is displaying any indication of being sick is beyond folly.
I even question those news reports that claim there's an upsurge in young people coming down with the virus because of their defiance and persistence in attending open-air bashes of one kind or another ─ I especially disbelieve that young people partying at some hot beach can be blamed for any so-called spread.
I think it's propaganda ─ lies. And just what level of 'coming down with the virus' or 'infections' are we talking about? Are these young people ending up bed-ridden? Or are test results just happening to be finding more and more young people with antibodies, for example?
That suggests to me the presence of a natural immunity. You can't be sick with the virus if you feel perfectly normal and will never be suffering any of the symptoms.
Every once in a while we do hear stories of a 'perfectly healthy' relatively young person falling deathly ill. But by whose standard was the person perfectly healthy? Just because people are walking around and don't have any obvious diseases doesn't mean that they are in the peak of good health. Vitamin D levels are a great example ─ half the population have low levels, if articles like this one are on the right track.
But of course, the sort of levels being considered are those that are sufficient to prevent the symptoms of clinical deficiencies such as rickets. That's not good enough ─ we need far more vitamin D than an amount that can comfortably prevent any sign of rickets if we truly want to enjoy robust health.
I bet everyone who is supposedly healthy who otherwise falls ill from SARS-CoV-2 would be deemed to have low blood levels of vitamin D if they were actually checked, but doctors don't normally look for that sort of thing.
Some doctors who do happen to be conscious about vitamin D's role in robust health recommend ─ for folks who aren't getting exposed to lots of sunlight in those months when the Sun is strong enough to generate vitamin D in the skin ─ supplementing with at least 4,000 I.U.s of vitamin D3. One doctor I am familiar with (Dr. Marc S. Micozzi) even touts 10,000 I.U.s of vitamin D3.
And apparently supplementation with magnesium and vitamin K2 reduces the actual amount of vitamin D3 supplementation that a person would need because magnesium and vitamin K2 help marshall the vitamin to best advantage.
But I'm getting a little off track here. I was just thinking in terms of the value of sunlight and how we shouldn't be hibernating from it under house arrest because 'health authorities' say that's what we absolutely must comply with to avoid infecting ourselves and everyone else with COVID-19.
Anyway, I've railed on long enough ─ I see that it's 3:34 a.m. at this point, so I'm going to call it quits for now.
I hope you're getting a good night's sleep!
It happened just after 6 p.m. as the Sun suddenly began dominating the outdoors ─ the window to this room is directly behind my computer. And although there is a closed curtain covering it, the brilliance after two days of sunless weather must have initiated an adverse reaction with my eye.
The entire upper field of my vision went into total shadow. It was not total darkness as if I suddenly went blind there, but it was such a dense cloud-like curtain that I could no more see anything through it than one would be able to see through a thickly overcast night sky to discern any stars above.
Nothing was visible ─ it was solid grey.
There was also a sense of strain to the eye.
I immediately betook myself from my computer and then after some thought, I decided to tackle four sets of bent-over knee curls using a 43½-pound dumbbell that I have ─ I performed four sets of curls alternating with each arm.
I'm 70 years old, so I have to practically hurl the weight up with each curl, but the sets included reps in this order: 10 - 9 - 8 - 7.
My thinking was that the sheer strain of this effort would help drive some vital fluids into my eye and help rejuvenate it.
Well, whether or not that did the trick, or whether the break from my computer screen and the bright sunlight outside was the ticket, I seem back to what passes for normalcy for me.
But I don't wish to tempt a recurrence, so I am going to bring this post to a close.
Will my brother be home by 8:30 p.m., thereby compelling me to sit up late this evening operating our Android TV Box?
Or will he even be one minute beyond that point in time, thereby breaking the unspoken curfew that I have in place for him?
In the latter scenario, then I will have naught to do with him and T.V. ─ it will be an early evening for me.
There needs to be some cut-off ─ so I have it at 8:30 p.m. I don't like sitting up until midnight, and to start watching shows after 8:30 p.m. definitely makes for a late evening of things.
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