Progress Report

I thought I’d just give y’all an update on the new laptop, which came preloaded with all sorts of shit from Microsquish that I neither wanted nor needed, and most of which has been banished to That Great Trash Dump In The Ether.

Sadly, one of the preloads was Windoze 11, which is a pestilence on the face of the Earth and whose creators deserve to be flayed alive and dunked in boiling oil.  Fucking hell, talk about “counterintuitive operations”.  It’s like learning a whole new program, and the easy functionality of #10 (which took me almost no time to learn lo those 8 years ago) has turned into a nightmare of different buttons to push and strange, inscrutable ways to see what’s actually on my system.

And WTF is “OneDrive”?  If I wanted to store stuff on the Cloud or whatever it’s called, I’m perfectly capable of doing so by myself and by my own choice, thank you, instead of having it forced upon me.  Needless to say, it’s been uninstalled (I think) but every so often I get to see yet another of its multitude of folders, which needs deleting each and every time.

Thankfully, the meme- and smutty pics files (i.e. the important stuff) are intact, which is more than I can say for my bookmarks, may the developers of Firefox join those of #11 in the boiling-oil cauldron.  (I followed the “Save All Bookmarks” routine — as explained in Mozilla’s [no-]HELP section — to the letter, and yet only a few bookmarks made it over to this machine.  Which means I have to re-create a shit ton of them by hand.  Don’t get me started.)

Then there are the MS programs which I use constantly, like Paint and the snipping tool, which have changed for no good reason I can ascertain (and not for the better, let me tell you).  I also like to have my Active / Open Programs tool bar running vertically on the right hand side of the screen rather than strung along the bottom of the screen, but apparently #11 doesn’t have that facility, FFS.  Why is this important?  Because my nice new wide screen has room to house said RHS toolbar, which would leave more visible vertical space to hold text articles;  but as it can’t, I find myself having to scroll up and down more often.  Fortunately, I could afford to buy a brand new Logitech ERGO mouse so that, at least, is less onerous a task.

On the other hand, it’s rather nice to have an “o” key which responds to a light finger touch, and the battery which lasts 6 hours instead of 30 minutes.  And yes, at last I could permanently disable the horrible touchpad (unlike on the old HP laptop), and I no longer have to duct-tape the power cord to the system to keep it from falling out like some post-coital limp penis.  And I can actually close the screen without all those dreadful creaking and snapping noises from the chassis and hinges.  And the keys are backlit so I don’t have to have the light on whilst I type.

All good stuff, that last paragraph.  Although I do miss having a DVD player in my laptop… but I have a spare multi-format DVD player which I can hook up to the system when New Wife is watching Great British Bake-Off  and I feel like (re-)watching Casablanca  or Foyle’s War  instead of plucking my eyeballs out.

Anyway, the migration process continues apace, and should be more or less completed in a week or so.  Next up:  installing Thunderbird for my email.  This should be fun…

There are (a very few) times when I enjoy using new technology.  This, however, is not one of those times.  It’s like having to buy a new car because the old one conked out, only to find that the pedals have been switched around and the steering is now performed by some new-style gaming controller instead of the familiar old steering wheel.  I know that in time one gets accustomed to the New Way Of Doing Things, but why the fucking fucking fucking hell should I when the Old Way worked perfectly, for nearly a decade withal?

I’m just hoping that this is the last laptop I’ll ever have to buy before I Shuffle Off This Mortal Coil;  but then again, I thought that about the last laptop I bought, and look how that turned out.

Rude good health, it seems, does have its drawbacks sometimes.

Commemoration

As Mr. Free Market reminds me:

Hey, what am I:  chopped liver?  I mean, I haven’t sent any rockets into orbit, but I bet I’ve sent a lot more lead downrange, and got a lot more people to do the same than ol’ Elon ever has…

And if I may be so bold:

 

We transplanted African-Americans all do our bit for our adopted country, in our own way.

Feelin’ Groovy

This is one of those boffins’ studies which ordinarily make my eyes glaze over (MEGO):

Drawing on data from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging, the findings reveal that today’s older adults demonstrate better physical and mental functioning than their counterparts of earlier generations at the same age.

…but in my case, I have to say that I agree with the thing’s conclusion, just by comparing myself now to myself back then.

I not only feel the same as I did when I was 60, a decade ago, but I actually feel better.

In no small degree, I think this is because I’ve lost so much weight (thank you, Ozempic) and my health stats seem to have massively improved.

My mood has improved since November 2024 too (for obvious reasons) but beyond that, I feel as though I haven’t aged at all.  Hell, sometimes I think I’m better off now than I was at fifty.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to the range.  (No, not to the gym;  the hell with that shit.)

Hold Yer Horses

I don’t know about anyone else, but for me, the actual new year will begin on January 20 and not on January 1.

So no, I’m not going to be celebrating anything tonight or at any time before the Inauguration.

But on January 21, I will be celebrating with gunfire at the range.  Anyone in the north Texas area is welcome to join me.  Details on request.

Late As Hell

Today’s posts may be a little tardy.  Why?  Because most of yesterday was spent at the range with Doc Russia and Combat Controller, in which time a ridiculous of ammo was expended and dizzying range of firesticks employed.

Then we went off for some post-shooting drinks (note, children:  shooting and then drinks), followed by a noisy dinner which all went on for far too long.

So now it’s bed-time, and I shall resume writing later today when/if I wake up and when/if ever I can quell the storm of hobgoblins running around in my head.

I’m getting too old for this nonsense.  The drinking, that is, and not the shooting.

Favorite Things Update

Last year I posted two lists of My Favorite Things (Part 1 and Part 2), and while I’m not going to redo the blessed things — as I said I wouldn’t — there are a couple of substitutions on the list, mainly because the items are no longer available or I’ve found something I prefer.  Here’s an example:

which has been replaced by the CZ 600.  But upon reflection, I think I’d rather go with this one:

Anschutz 1761 DHB Classic$2,985

Yeah, it’s kinda spendy for a .22 — but it also comes in .223 Rem, for those extra-special varminting excursions — and the quality thereof is matchless.  Remember, this list is all about beauty and quality.

Interestingly, as I peruse both lists, I find that all the items are as alluring as they were a year ago.  But as I suspected may happen, I’ve found an alternative for a couple:

I know I said they were scarce, but sheesh.  “Unobtanium” about covers it.  But here’s one that is available, albeit at a Silly Money price:

1964 Alfa Romeo Giulia Spider$104,000

And while the exterior is lovely, it’s the interior that gets me all a-twitter:

None of that stuffy wood nonsense here:  if that doesn’t scream “FUN!!!” at the top of its lungs to you, you’re deaf and we can’t be friends.  And as with most cars sold at E&RClassics, this one has been completely resto-modded and restored to what it should have been back in the day, but wasn’t.  A hundred grand is spendy, mind, but let’s not compare it to today’s “exotic” sports cars, shall we?  And as an added bonus, there is not a single computer chip or electronic transmission device anywhere to be found, which means your Spider won’t be a Spyder, either.  (I know, I know:  I should be ashamed of myself.)

One more, for fun:


Now I have nothing against the 686, no sir not me. But I think I prefer this one over it:

S&W Mod 48 .22 Win Mag$1,100

Blued steel, long barrel, chambered for my favorite rimfire cartridge… sorry, I need to get something to wipe the drool off my keyboard.  Second-hand, they run about $700-$800, depending on condition.

Those are pretty much all the changes I’ve run across, so far.

Feel free to browse the links and make some suggestions of your own.