A Dash of Sult N Papper 05/02/20> The novelty is wearing off…but the wear is real.

in #dailydose4 years ago

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The title of...

The title of this post seemed pretty fitting; lately I wait until I’m done writing to put a title to the Dash because lately I haven’t been exactly sure what I was going to write about. This one is different though because I know exactly what I want to say.

The question to yet be resolved is which part do I want to tackle first? Either subject I choose first; the title holds true though.

I’ve chosen to go with the one that has most impact on the majority of the people; COVID19.

Novelty might seem...

“Novelty” might seem like a poor choice of word to describe this virus but I’ll stick with that choice. Just so you know where I’m coming from I’ll share the definition that I go by and that is found at etymonline.com .

novelty (n.)
late 14c., novelte, "quality of being new," also "a new manner or fashion, an innovation; something new or unusual," from Old French novelete "newness, innovation, change; news, new fashion" (Modern French nouveauté), from novel "new" (see novel (adj.)). Meaning "newness" is attested from late 14c.; sense of "useless but decorative or amusing object" is attested by 1888 (as in novelty shop, by 1893). An earlier word was novelry (c. 1300).

So we can...

So as we can see COVID 19 fits the definition like a pair of handmade quality boots from Jesse’s Boot Shop. With the “quality of being new” and the Old French of “newness, innovation, change” I’d say my choice of the word “novelty was right on the money.

They took something that had been around for years, but we have always called it by the word “flu”, decided to give a new name “virus” and there is your “newness”.

It also fits the “quality of being new” since like most flues’ they have to mutate in order to survive from year to year. So it isn’t uncommon to have two or sometimes more strains of flu in a single flu season.

Now it may...

Now it may not fit the meaning “useless but decorative or amusing object”, which was attested in 1888, from most people’s sense of perspective.

But it just might if you were one of the people who were going around predicting it coming like Dr. Fauci as far back as in 2017.

He isn’t alone in my opinion either; I think there are plenty of folks involved in this at higher levels that have used this COVID19 as a “tool” to see just how much liberty we’ll give up in order to have a sense of security.

We gave up...

We gave up a hell of lot of freedom and liberty in 2001 when that piece of shit president Bushwhacker signed the “Patriot Act”. George W is a piece of shit; make no mistake about it.

I hate to admit when I make errors but I made a few over the course of my life in voting for him and his father. It remains to be seen just how much we’ll have given up in jobs and productivity when this all shakes out.

Don't be surprised...

Don’t be surprised or happy that a “new vaccine” will magically come about very quickly for “corona virus flues”.

I will go “all in” with a bet that when it becomes available it will be mandatory that we get “vaccinated”. The way they (government) will accomplish this is through your driver license process.

I can see the day coming that in order to get a new driver license or renew an existing one you’ll have to show proof you got your vaccine shot.

Those of you...

Those of you that don’t drive, don’t smile just yet; you won’t be able to get your government issued state identification card either without your shot records.
The same will hold true for pass ports and visas so pretty much everyone over eighteen who wants to go anywhere, do anything or even work will have to have some form of government identification.

We are nothing more than a bunch of pawns on the giant government chess board.

So much for the first part of the novelty let’s move on to part two.

Part two has...

Part two has to do with the @bropoker Team Up tournament. Seems the novelty is wearing off there as well.

The larger than normal entries for the tournaments have really dropped off the last few days. Friday night the last two tournaments didn’t even have enough entries to fire off the games.

I flat missed...

I flat missed the earlier one that launch at 7:00 PM my time but it doesn’t matter. When it comes to “Omaha” poker games I really am less than “average” as a player. Anytime I have more than two cards in my “pocket” (hole cards) I seem to confuse myself.

In fact Thursday night I made the decision to forgo anymore of the 10:30 PM games because those just take to damn long and by that time of the night I am wore ass out.

I kind of ...

I kind of suspected this would happen though. Unless you are on one of the top three teams right now,( in the standings) more than likely you have given up on any chance of winning the tournament.

That is why I made it a point to start hard and fast playing as many games as I could get in on every day at the outset of the tournament.

Points for finishing places are determined by how many entrants are in the tournament; more entries equal more points available. The early on tournaments games were worth more in points than the last few games.

So from here...

So from here on out it becomes which three team members (combined as one team) want it more than the others. The skill level of the top three teams seems pretty equal in my estimation so now the endurance factor will be what decides the tournament; the novelty has worn off.

The wear and...

The wear and tear on is real though when it comes to the mind and body. The games are really set up with the North American continent players at an advantage, some folks in Europe and Africa are up all hours of their nights and sleeping during the day in order to play the bulk of the games.

I’m a competitive old bastard but not that competitive.

How long they can keep that schedule will definitely remain to be seen. I was fortunate enough to get teamed up with players in Florida and Pennsylvania so we have the clock on “our side” so to speak.

It is going...

It is going to be long season for sure and now it will become “pick and choose” which tournaments a person can fit into their life schedule as things start to get back to “normal” in the outside world of life.

Friday was the...

Friday was the youngest boy’s birthday and I had to enter a couple of tournaments and then “auto-fold” as I just sat out the entire game until I was out of chips from paying the big & small blinds. I don’t like doing that but even a few points here and there may end up making the difference as the tournament winds down at the end.

We did get...

We did get to take him out for breakfast at the local diner that opened up that very morning after being closed for nearly two months.

The “birthday breakfast” has been a family tradition since we had our first child and we were very fortunate to keep that intact, had he been born a day earlier eighteen years ago that tradition would have been broken.

He was also able to have lunch with eight of his good friends for Mexican at our favorite local cantina, so he was pleased with that as well. It had been two months since they had actually been able to get together so they had a great time catching up.

I just looked at the clock, it is well past midnight here and I’ve got a long day tomorrow (today) so night ya’ll.

Until next time,
Sult

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Well, statistically I only made half the Bush mistakes you did. I voted for the shrub twice and poppy not at all.

I'm still not convinced that the alternative would have been better. That's a sad commentary right there.

Like you, I am concerned about the liberties we have surrendered again. That the Patriot Act passed the second test still pisses me off something fierce. I understand the FUD of the time, so get the over reaction on the first one. But the second go round was inexcusable.

I am concerned that we will get the "Mission Accomplished" bullshit before it's done. We are still in Afghanistan for guzbuck's sake. 18 years and counting.

It's not like it didn't give us some warning. SARS and MARS are both Corona Virus caused. Not this one, this one is Novelle CoronaVirus. Seriously. A word you defined.

And the thought we are going to kick it's ass? The H1N1 flu virus kills several hundred thousand world wide every year, in spite of vaccines and treatments. Sometimes called Swine Flu (it started in Pigs) it ravaged the world in 1918. Yep. Spanish Flu.

Ugggggghhhhhh. Sometimes I am glad that I'm old and don't have much concern for the future.

I attribute my error in judgement on the Bushwhacker for forgetting that "bad apples" are still "apples" and fall close to the tree no matter what. The old man wise a liar and cheat who said , "know new taxes" as you have stated before but I, and damn near every other person took ,as "no new taxes". Proving once again; words mean things.

The saying that the devil is in the details is especially important in the spoken word since, we have words that sound exactly the same spelled differently.

The "Mission Accomplished" is a great example you've pointed too as well. I guess you and I took it as "we are done" but in reality we don't what "their" mission was now do we? Seeing that it has been 18 years plus on that "war" my hindsight is telling me that getting us into the war was the "mission accomplished" portion.

I never have invested in stock of companies that derive their earnings from making bombs, tanks and other items of war but I would wager the "law makers" have been invested deeply in those types of stocks. Seeing that those "law makers" have the inside tract on how long to stay invested in those and will be cashed out in time before the war actually ends.

Of course if we had that type of "information" it would be considered as "insider trading" but for law makers it is just a function of their "job" to have that information. We wonder how those politicians go to Washington with little and end up millionaires or billionaires? The lobbyist money is "tip money" in relation to what they stand to make from market information they have access too.

Like you; I to am getting a little long on age but unlike you I have much concern for the future seeing that my kids still have hopefully many, many years left in life. So I will plug along and keep trying to get my message across to them and others until I'm no longer capable.

We had dinner last night outside under the old oak tree to celebrate the younger boy's birthday.

At the table the oldest boy and I got into discussing just how "crazy" I am. I told him there will come a time in his life, most likely when he has children of his own, that he'll say "that old SOB grandfather of your's was right about a lot of things."

So I told him, "when you catch yourself saying those words remember I wrote it all down and it is documented on the internet or whatever it will be called then. That way your kids will be able to read it for themselves."

That was the first time I ever told him or the family what my real purpose was for ever starting writing the Dailydose or the now Dash of Sult N Papper. Right then he said, "you know...you may not be as crazy as I think you are."

He has the disability of a public school education so he is harder to crack than the others but it looks like progress is being made.

Thanks for the support and great comment.
Sult

I did not mean that I was unconcerned with where the world and more specifically the country is headed, just that sometimes I think it's good that I did my living in the time frame that I did. I AM concerned about the future and the future generations.

I had the disability of a public school education, too. Maybe what they all considered my greatest liability was really a strength. I didn't pay very much attention especially when I could smell the bullshit.

I gotcha now, I should have been able to pick up on that, but I wasn't through with my first cup of coffee so my brain wasn't in @bigtom13 mode yet. Bullshit does have a distinctive odor about it, almost every class in public school should be labeled as FFA class with all the bullshit in those class rooms being passed off as curriculum.

Interesting. My friend in SandyEgo and I discussed our HS education (She was a born student, I was a born learner) and the ONE teacher we talked about was the one we both hated. The primary english teacher. She took no prisoners and taught a class full of heathens the Queen's language. Rather well, I might add.

I survived her in the Library. She was the head librarian, also. I loved the elegance of the Dewey Decimal System and sucked up something fierce there. Probably saved my mediocre English grades.

My cousin (we were raised together. Her Mom had MS) got a PHD in Library Science so I probably know more about the DDS than any ordinary human should.

The Dewey Decimal System is probably unknown to most kids today unless they frequent a library to read books. My girls spend a lot of hours in our local public library before hurricane Harvey hit it with a massive flood, the water was at least 7' deep inside it. Of course it is built right along side the Cypress Creek which floods pretty regularly now since all the once farm land north and west of Spring is all subdivisions now and drain into the creek.
The library took two years to reopen and the other library further east of us the county decided not to even rebuilt it; it too sits along Cypress Creek. So the girls have been limited to reading books we have in the house or online right now.

I've got a Kindle from Amazon. Much as I like physical books, I do most of my reading on the Kindle. How else could I carry 3000 books on my motorcycle? :)

Seriously. There are just a lot of 'Public Domain' (free) books that have gone out of copyright and are free. Many (most) public libraries have an 'electronic' lend program of some sort or another. Over the last 15 years I have picked up on a whole bunch of 'classic' literature for free. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and others. It's a pretty good deal, and way portable enough to take my book where ever I go.

No flood damage for electronic books. That's a really sad story about your libraries. I feel for your girls. When I was their age I even got 'books by mail' from the state library.

I fear the permanent loss of privacy and civil liberties surrounding this virus the most. Many countries in Europe and Asia are using this as an opportunity to expand large scale surveillance programs (tracking cell phone data/facial recognition) of their citizens. I suspect the US will do the same, whether it's known or not. The "experts" are all saying that they expect to be dealing with this virus and those like it for a long time and they need to know who is breaking stay-at-home orders. I expect when all national currencies are digitized people will receive an "instant fine" for breaking the rules. A chilling thought.

I wouldn't beat yourself up too badly for voting the way that you did. I didn't vote for them but it's likely that things would have turned out the same way no matter who was in office. The two parties are really just opposite sides of the same coin. My son floated an interesting idea last night on a video chat when I said we need a viable third party before things will change in this country. He said, "We need to do away with parties. Candidates should run on their platforms and stances on issues alone." He argued the party system allows voters to be lazy and just vote the party line. I thought that made sense in some respects although it would upset a certain set of checks and balances that our forefathers put into place. It's interesting to think about though.

I'm very happy to hear your son got to celebrate his birthday in the way he wanted to! What amazing timing that was. My wife just had her birthday a few weeks ago and we had to celebrate in a neighborhood park with our son. I told her once things open up again we'll celebrate properly. My 49th is coming up on June 18th and it looks like there's a good chance restaurants will be open by then.

I wish you a good and relaxing Sunday, Sult. I'm heading out into this gorgeous weather for a bike ride. Take care!

Eric

P.S....A story about the 440 Magnum engine came up in my Google News feed yesterday. They said the Magnum wasn't a true Hemi! The folks at Chrysler, supposedly, slapped the "hemi" badge on it because they realized the marketing power of the name. I was dumbfounded by that little bit of trivia. Here's the article... https://www.automobilemag.com/news/hemi-engine/