The word of the week is innocuous.
Sept 25 – Spreading Fake Science
Social media really sucks, sometimes.
One of the worst aspects of places like Facebook, apart from sucking up too much of our time in a day, is that it's SO easy for scams and misinformation to spread: people just don't pay attention or even THINK before they click Like and move on or worse, Share articles or images that simply aren't truthful.
The anti-science / anti-intellectuals out there know this, and use it well. Pretty pictures( memes )are easy to make to provoke emotional reactions in their viewers, and thus spread quickly as people Share them with their friends. No sources are attached to the 'facts' in these images, thus divorcing the message that these AS / AInt propagandists want to spread from any sort of verifiable evidence. This is especially galling with the topic of Climate change, where a shocking number of people don't know or, worse, don't care about the science involved, but continue to parrot misinformation spread by fossil fuel interests.
At least Jimmy Kimmel has the guts and the brains to discuss these problems on his show, which I really should start watching on YouTube; he makes a ton of sense:
Sep 26 – Honest Trailers: TNG!
This is the one I've been waiting for!
All this week, I've been listening / watching Honest Trailers, going through movies, video games and TV series as my job keeps my hands busy but my eyes and ears free to be entertained - nice, that. Conspicuously absent from the HT roster has been Star Trek: The Next Generation... but that changed today, as HT released a wonderful 'honest summary' of the show in time for its 30th anniversary this month:
Sep 27 – Science Surety!
It's reassuring that though there's a TON of fake science on the web today, often spread through social networks, there's still many places you can go to find the real goods on what reputable scientists are actually working on.
Author David Brin - https://www.facebook.com/AUTHORDAVIDBRIN/ is one of the people who regularly makes the effort to call out bad and fake science for what it is, much like Bill Nye and Neile DeGrasse Tyson. Today he posted this updated list of where to go to find excellent science news online, without paywalls:
Science Daily https://www.sciencedaily.com/
Real Clear Science http://www.realclearscience.com/
Science http://www.sciencemag.org/
Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/science/
Futurism https://futurism.com/
The Verge https://www.theverge.com/science
Scientific American https://www.scientificamerican.com/
Despite the vocal and persistent efforts of anti-intellectuals on so many social platforms today, people like Mr. Brin show that those who value facts and real science are firmly holding the ground against the conservative mouthpieces out there who are working to sow doubt in the name of profit and political game. Here's an informative video on what Hollywood's teaching us about science:
It's wearing sometimes, but if people don't stand their ground, then the facts won't matter, because most regular folk won't know who to trust for anything.
Which is exactly what the conservatives want to keep their power bases intact.
Sept 28 – A little sick, to my heart?
It seems I caught a bug this week; though it wasn't bad, it still scared me a little.
I think I picked it up from an interac terminal on Tuesday, when I had pizza for the first time in over a year at The Brickyard - yum! Darned if I neglected to sanitize my hands afterwards though, since the machine didn't have the Tap feature and I had to enter my pin... careless of me, but that's all it takes to pick up a germ, and those terminals see a LOT of hands every day without being sanitized. Yesterday evening I suddenly felt hot and my heartrate jumped by 10-15 bpm over normal when resting, so I knew I'd caught something...
Last night's sleep was pretty rough, as I found it hard to swallow without moderate discomfort, but I lucked into a decent treatment called 'Throat Coat' tea that took most of the discomfort away. A couple of those teas a day and by this evening, my throat was in decent shape, though my heartrate was still slightly elevated.
Also, my chest ached after I had my evening tea, like it hadn't since I started taking Hawthorn supplements daily a year ago; what the heck?
Suspicious, I looked at the Throat Coat tea's herbal ingredients, and realized that three of them( Licorice, Wild Cherry Bark and Fennel Root )all had various effects on heartrate... which apparently I'm still susceptible to, still.
And here I thought I was doing better than I had been, thanks to the Hawthorn...
Still, lesson learned: whatever's going on inside the left-side of my chest, it's still there, and since the various tests( EKG and blood )haven't shown there's anything wrong with my heart, I've got to go with just being MORE careful about what I eat and how I go about my day. Considering that the treadmill EKG test I had back in February 2017 had my heartrate safely running at 149 bpm, it's just so damn odd to have my chest ache inside, in reaction more to what I eat than what I do in terms of strenuous activity.
I'll have to put some pressure on my doctor to get me a CAT scan, though. Living with this uncertainty will only add to my stress levels, which won't help matters.
At least my girlfriend doesn't seem worried, so there's that.
Sept 29 – Job Disappointment
This morning I received a disappointing email: I hadn't got the job I wanted.
Specifically, I was officially notified that I'd been passed over in the competition( as government calls it )for the position of Office Manager... for the office I'm currently working in, which would have been REALLY good for me in many ways.
The reason? I'd said that I possessed only basic, not "intermediate or advanced PowerPoint skills" which "took me out of consideration for the position."
Powerpoint? Really?
 |
| Thanks, Science Cat! |
It really socked it to me, hearing that I'd missed out on a promotion( and a decent pay increase )because of my lacking ONE specific skill; I was in a funk for hours. All the same, I sent an email to the person managing the competition( around the corner from me )asking for feedback, which they kindly gave me, and in abundance - I think she felt bad that I'd been eliminated for such a petty reason, as I was more than qualified for every other aspect of the job.
So, live and learn, and do better next time.
A shame that I couldn't get the position, as it would have been great to work in the same office with the same people I get along with. Hopefully I can get a position that pays better sometime in the next few months, before my finances degrade to the point that no increase in salary will allow me to recover from.
#$%#^%!@%^! PowerPoint.
Add that to the skill sets I have to make time to learn, on top of my novel-writing and small-business setup time budgets in the next few months...
Not Happy Peter Week, this is...
Sept 30 – Star Trek: Discovery
Meh.
That was pretty much my reaction to watching the first two episodes of the new Star Trek series tonight, which kinda surprised me. No Spoilers Below.
Maybe it's because I'm so tuned into what a good story should be, that when I see sloppy work in an otherwise big-budget production, it stands out like a sore thumb. Don't get me wrong: the special effects, sets and casting were all excellent for Discovery, but when I had to pause to stop yelling "WHAAAT?" at the screen when various characters made such DUMB decisions at no fewer than five points...
Sure, I get it: it's a new show, and they'll have to find their legs during the first season, just like every show does. Some of them don't really get rolling smoothly until their second or even third season, but that's unusual if they've got good writers that aren't being noted to death by the studio execs as they go along.
Apart from the main female character having a male name( Michael )that I found jarring every time it was said, the show seems dead-set on being action-oriented, by which I mean they're going to be going gung-ho into conflict-centric stories.
That will make for a lot of pretty CGI set-pieces, but I don't think it's going to lend itself to good writing, as it's easy to find excuses to Blow Crap Up Good often.
Anyway, the short is: disappointed, but willing to give them slack for five or so episodes, even to the end of the season, to see if the writing will shape up. At this point, I'd take The Expanse over ST:D any day of the week, so good luck, guys!
Oct 1 – A New Month
Fall is here, and so is change. How am I doing? Let's check in briefly...
Healthwise, I'm getting more back to a baseline normal every week, though as this week's entries above show, it's a process with both progress and pitfalls. My abdomen is almost pain-free, day to day, with some being sore and others fine; a long way from three months ago, when I was sitting and standing carefully like an old man to avoid any pain. There's still pains in my thigh muscles when I stretch them awkwardly some days, but only complaints and warnings, not anything disabling. I'm eating full meals regularly and getting in my 10K steps most days while being able to sit and move around work normally, which has been wonderful. I've not felt anxious about much of anything for months now - yay!
Job-wise, I'm stuck( see above )and I'm continuing to just plow ahead in my search for better positions. Not much new here, save that I'm learning with each rejection, which is also good training for when I send my novel out shortly...
Life-wise, things are all right, though as always finances are tight: getting to the end of 2017 will be doable, but there's not going to be much wriggle room. My dad injured himself at work, thankfully nothing that won't heal, but he'll be off work on WCB for six months, so that's a drain on time here and there each week as my sister and I assist as we can in getting things done for them as needed.
Business-wise, I'm fervently hoping that my GlowForge will finally be in my hands by the end of November and I can finally start making some money on the side. Even a few hundred a month will make a BIG difference to my budget!
Writing-wise, I'm waiting until the end of October to get back suggestions and surveys from half a dozen beta readers to finish tweaking my novel edit and get it OUT there, finally! Work's been started up again on finishing the second half of my second novel, and 2018 is looking good for getting both of them sent out to agents and publishers as polished, professional offerings to see them picked up.
Time-wise, I'm grateful that my day job doesn't require much of me, as my energies in the next three months will be fully-occupied with all of the above in the evenings and weekends. I have few specific commitments of a week, so I'm free to balance my time between my writing, home business, family and relaxation time, which is wonderful as I slowly get my health back on track.
It's going to be a busy fall season.
Not much left to say after all that; it's pretty much Let's Get On With It.
PS - pardon the odd font colours; my copy of MS Word flaked out, so I had to use the online version and it's not formatting the text correctly. One more thing to work on this week...
PS - pardon the odd font colours; my copy of MS Word flaked out, so I had to use the online version and it's not formatting the text correctly. One more thing to work on this week...
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