Missive #80 Published 30 May 2023
It has taken 70 years for Vonnegut's dystopia to come to pass — almost. Today in the United States all those machines have been moved to some other country where they still require human labor but it is cheaper. For those jobs that can't be sent out of the country the plan seems to be to allow cheap labor to come into the country. A very good book, I'll be reading more of his novels. Read the rest
Missive #79 Published 28 May 2023
My efforts to find some way to transition WordPress Pages other than the tried a true button and link method have concluded. I did find a plugin that did what I wanted somewhat but it also killed my Responsive Menu. It also was just lipstick on a pig; it took just as long for the page being moved to open as when using the link method. Read the rest
Missive #78 Published 26 May 2023
The author received high marks from The New York Times but did not score as well with goodreads.com reviewers. There were some that thought it was great and some that thought she didn’t write the all encompassing business book that she should. The book is about ‘people’ and how globalization has destroyed their lives. It is also about John Bassett III and his family but that was about people as well. I liked the book and recommend it. Read the rest
Missive #77 Published 24 May 2023
This is a much better book than what Dos Passos produced in his early career. It may be a collection of prior articles but they fit together to make his point. It is also a mild mea culpa regarding his early support of socialism and communism . Read the rest
Missive #76 Published 21 May 2023
I have also started another project, or more like an experiment, on how to include images/pictures in my WordPress site. I have no problem with one or two images it is when I want to group three or more together that it becomes a problem. Even a bigger problem if they are a mixture of portrait and landscape. You can see that in my old website pages; same issue in WordPress. Read the rest
Missive #75 Published 19 May 2023
I went to the VA Audiology Clinic on Wednesday to get my replacement hearing aids. I had my doubts that there would be much improvement but have been proved wrong. They are much better; I have been hearing things that were making a noise before that I didn't hear. With only limited conversation I think hearing and understanding human speech is also improved although still not great. Read the rest
Missive #74 Published 16 May 2023
I have now finished the two books and have also finished the coding. There may be some more cosmetic coding to be done but it is WORKING. It has taken me a long time to accomplish this. But, considering the fact that I do not know what I'm doing and it has all been done using the "Try again. Fail again. Fail better." coding method, I'm rather proud of what I have done. Read the rest
Missive #73 Published 14 May 2023
Herman Melville's classic novel Moby-Dick immortalized the idea of a mammoth sperm whale roaming the seas, wreaking havoc on all that crossed its path. But could such a creature actually exist, then or now? To find out, the acclaimed adventure writer and explorer Tim Severin set off to the islands of the South Pacific in search of one of our most iconic modern myths.This is a good read but not as adventurous as Severin's earlier books. Read the rest
Missive #72 Published 12 May 2023
This book uses a lot more geography than just the 'bootheel' of New Mexico for the story setting. It covers an area from Reserve, New Mexico in the north to near Durango, Mexico is the south. From east to west; all the border crossings from Palomas, Chihuahua to Naco, Sonora, Mexico. What made it very enjoyable for me was the mention of the many places in that overall area where I have been. The story line is very similar to the first book in the Border Trilogy. There is also considerable character conversation in Spanish so be prepared to do translations if you do not speak the language. There is also more philosophical musing in this second book that there was in the first; that made it a more difficult read for me. Read the rest
Missive #71 Published 9 May 2023
This book did not get the number of stars that I thought it deserved. Most of the poor reviews were looking for a continuation of Flashman books. Those were comedic historical fiction and very entertaining. This book was serious historical fiction and a much better book than any of the Flashman tales. Flashman did make a cameo appearance in this one but he played it reasonably straight. Read the rest