Category Archives: personal

Wizard Mule (a little story)

It’s about time. It’s about space.
It’s about saving our human race.

After arriving at the Asheville SpaceTimeNexus,

my partner and I were briefed on our next mission.

And then we set out through the gateway, each on our own path.

We trusted that the plan would come together.

We work together separately. Some say we have a magical connection.

The details will always be more than classified, in fact there is no other record of this.
I was to pose as a communications officer on a space freighter en-route to Alpha Centauri and to modify some software cargo before it arrived at the inter-galactic wormhole transfer station there. Highly sensitive software is never delivered over any network, only by trusted couriers. In this case the courier is a new quantum computer, my target.

I got the job; radios, computers… Nothing new here.

I’ve handled communications gear most of this lifetime.

Tricky thing about traveling at nearly light speed, one ages considerably.

The process is reversed when (and if) one returns. By the time I arrived at the wormhole portal, I had successfully made some access changes in the software cargo that this freighter was to deliver to the ITC (more on that later).

Arriving at the portal undetected (these are kind of like a truck stop, or a big airport), I gained access to the ITC Timeship as a wizard trying to get a deadhead return trip home. From that position I was able to then further modify some code in that ship’s new quantum computer, again avoiding detection.

This next part was challenging, as I had to split myself into multiple coherent instances to make the changes simultaneously without raising alarms. What may seem like a lifetime flurry of activity, is actually less than the blink of an eye to any outside observer. Think of creating a brief wormhole in a quantum computer, and then erasing any trace in only a few zeptoseconds . .

Not trivial. Do NOT try this at home.

I didn’t learn how to do this by staying at a Holiday Inn.

( BUT, I have stayed at hundreds of HI over these current decades.

Who knows what lingering effects may persist.)

 

Thoughts on being a wizard : Not just anyone can become a wizard.

It is not practical to be a wizard in every lifespan,

As even us wizards need a break now and then.

Somehow over time, it does become a burden – rather than a blessing.

Be careful what you wish for.

I was ready to go home after this trip.

 

SO. Once the mission objective was met.
I created my own ship to get me home before I woke up.

So, what was that mission ?

In a time-traveling future, it can be dangerous to meddle with the past.
There will exist a secret society tasked with gently nudging future events and preventing nefarious individuals from destroying development in emerging civilizations. Several of these dark forces have taken over the Inter-Galactic Transport Cartel (ITC).  Think of an earthly Highway Department stealing farmland to build a new exit ramp or a beltway shortcut.

They feel that they can blast a wormhole through any (relatively) unoccupied location in 3-D space necessary to create new 4-D off-ramp / shortcut, regardless of whether or not any sustainable form of life/intelligence may exist in that path. In their short-sighted view, they had diminished the importance of our little solar system, and ignored the gravitational impact of future wormhole traffic on our little sun. Potentially our sun might break apart (explode) before our civilization figures out how to travel beyond our solar system, to find alternate habitable planets in other solar systems.

By diddling the database in the new ITC quantum computer, we successfully slightly modified the timing and location of that new wormhole bypass to avoid our insignificant solar system. Other forces (on this planet even) can easily bring about the collapse of our civilization, but that is beyond the scope of our mission. We do what we have to do.

My partner can tell his own story I’m sure – about endless meetings, software analysis, and regression testing to ensure that our changes would go undetected (and that the outcome would be positive). I leave that to him.

I only delivered a product, a mule you might say.
As long as I can wake up in my own bed the next morning,
and stay    @~    (that is a computer shortcut for “at home”).

But, I live to continue breathing, retired or not. Best life I’ve ever had.
Just playing with my ham radio stuff, like it was somewhere in the future.

/;^)

Teaching an old dog

Things change so quickly, especially at my age.
Once upon a time I had good control over how the blog thing here was working.

current workspace in my ‘lab’

Years go by, and things change. I have spent several days re-figuring-out the WordPress editors and how they deal with old legacy widgets, and theme options. Kinda like going back to work…

That being said, I have changed (more than) a few things around, trying to preserve as much of the previous functionality as possible. I’m still hoping to be able to continue to use the “blogroll” widget, even tho they discourage sharing links of our friend’s pages… (reduces your ‘ranking’ in Gooooogle searches).

There is still some old stuff on here to be cleaned out, but this is a great start towards rejuvenation.
Feedback greatly appreciated, subscribe if you are even slightly interested.
Promise to not blow up your INBOX.
/;^)

Living

So, in answer to some that have questioned where I have been, and what I’m doing…

The short answer is “Living“.

A longer answer includes things like : (not a complete list)

.. spending more time taking care of my own agenda.
.. spending even less time looking at headlines.
.. not spending as much time on FaceB**k.
.. we have tomatoes, zucchini, & peppers started in our small patch.
.. adjusting and cleaning up my ham radio VHF antenna stack.
      (in part to make it more “HOA friendly“)
.. further reducing an impressive collection of the trinkets of my life.
.. parsing thru hundreds of old photos, scanning a few – pitching some.
.. reviewing multiple file drawers of papers I have saved since the 70s.
.. but the list grows longer each day – so love being retired.
.. OH, not to mention re-learning the WordPress editor of the day.

Continue reading

How Bout Some Cornbread ?

Almost ‘Dairy Free’ Cornbread

As several others do, my digestive system has some intolerance for dairy products.

For decades I have denied myself so many products that feel the need to include milk.
Fortunately the industry is now more diverse than it was before.
I call this _Almost “Dairy Free“_, because the main ingredient still has some trace of buttermilk.
However by replacing other items with Coconut equivalents,

this recipe produces a quality result – and I don’t need to take a Lactase Enzyme product.
(Your mileage may vary.) This is basically the recipe on the bag, but only a half batch.

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Half batch (6″ cast iron skillet) – preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Prepare:

1 cup of Martha White “Hot-Rise’ Buttermilk Cornbread Mix”

2 fresh eggs (bring to room temp with warm water) (use three for a full size batch)

1/2 cup Full Fat Coconut Milk (room temp)

1/8 cup Coconut Oil (this oil will congeal if added to cold eggs or milk)

1/2 teaspoon of coconut sugar

1/2 teaspoon of bacon grease

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