Shhh ... don't tell ...

One of the good things about the fact that my wife doesn't read this blog:  I can post this video of her that she hates because she thinks it's like a memorial for someone no longer walking the face of this Earth.  She'll never know it's here.

Permission was given to use the accompanying audio track.

JM(M)

You can't always believe what you see ...

Should you believe that what you see on TV and social media are
accurate portrayals of events as they really happened?

This young man in the photo above (identified as Nick Sandmann) was waiting for his school group to gather for their bus trip home to Kentucky when he ended up in the middle of a viral news event.  Until I began poking around for different versions of this event (mostly on YouTube.Com) I was lead to believe by the initially available video clip that the young man was harassing the older man, identified as Nathan Phillips, an apparent regular to the National Mall who makes annual appearances at this location.  I thought, just from the photo, and then from the viral video:  "What a rude little smartass."  Then I saw another video-clip of nearly the same scene and thought "What rude little kids, they're making fun of the old man.  Where are their chaperones?"  Then I went digging for more video.

Imagine if you will:

A young man being accosted by someone 'in his face.'  A young man being surrounded by a crowd, who has nowhere to go, and is actually afraid.  Is it possible that he is a young man who has been taught not to run when confronted or when he feels threatened.   Is it possible that this young man smiles when he's nervous or because he knows there are a dozen or more smartphone cameras pointed at him?

Might knowing the circumstances in which the picture was taken alter its message? It's statement?

There are more than a few videos of the above incident to be found which present different interpretations of the events surrounding the popular images of the smiling boy and the chanting old man.

Here are a few videos of the events of that day, all presenting the events differently:

Version 1

Version 2

Version 3

Version 4

Exactly what happened there?  I can't be sure.

Unfortunately, if you weren't there, you don't know and can't answer the question, either.  You can't know what you don't know.  No matter what happens in real life, if the only available version of 'the events as they unfolded' is what someone else said, wrote, or edited video or audio:  you can't be sure what really happened.  You just can't.

This photo of the January 2019 total lunar eclipse was taken by me.  But you'll
have to take my word for it.  I was there and you weren't, so ... did it really happen?

But!  This way of thinking is also how you end up with 'Truthers' who believe the government flew remote-controlled planes into The World Trade Center in NYC, into a field in PA, and the Pentagon on 9-11.  It's thinking like this which gives rise to people who are sure that mankind never landed on the moon or that there was no Holocaust in Nazi Germany.

JM(M)

UPDATE: (21 Jan., 0430) on the viral "Kid vs. Old man" story:

CLICK HERE TO SEE UPDATE

(According to Mr. Phillips, the kid blocked his way and, he told reporter David Begnaud in an interview w/CBSN that he hopes the kid will " ... live a good life and treat people with respect and treat himself with respect. To forgive himself, you know. To forgive others. Treat each other, treat others the way he wanted to be treated.")

FINAL UPDATE:  A quick search for updates re: this incident will show you that most all aware of this incident have come to believe that the incident was made into something it was not by agenda-driven media outlets and others.  The kid(s) from Covington are suing CNN and others ... good on 'em.

CLICK HERE FOR STATEMENT FROM 'THE MAGA-HAT KID'

Just in case you haven't noticed and are affected: 2-hour delay tomorrow for DC Feds ...

Tuesday, 15 Jan:  2-hour delay for DC Feds -- Good luck this weekend!

JM(M)

Paid snow day ... except for those already furloughed.

You need to keep busy ...

It snowed. *All* of DC is now shut down.

Between 12 & 13 January 2019, my neighborhood
received somewhere from 1 to 11.5 inches of snow.

The weatherguessers 'called it.'

The prediction was that, somewhere over 2 or 3 days, there would be an accumulation of 2-10 inches of snow ... we got about 6'ish, from what I can tell.  But I'm not really sure what to go by; should I listen to WTOP radio, watch TV weather news, look at my Weatherbug app on my cellphone, ask Alexa (!) or just go stick a ruler into the snow?

Now everyone who works for one of the government departments still being paid who had been expecting to be waiting for 4am to find out from The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) if they're expected to show up for work late on Monday or at all (that's when OPM historically makes these decisions), have been advised:  stay home.

As Mr. Bill Murray would say:  "It just doesn't matter" for me.  Sick people who may have pneumonia should say home regardless of whether or not the government is shut down due to weather or a wall.

Peace out.

JM(M)

"Snow or no snow," that is the question.

I predict this weathergirl is 100% with regard to her weather-related commentary.

To be fair, I acknowledge that Mother Nature is difficult to predict.  Sometimes you get what was promised.  Sometimes you get what was expected.  And sometimes you get clocked with a roundhouse kick to the side of the head that you didn't see coming.

With that said, the weather people seem pretty sure of themselves this time.  Their inches and probability percentages differ slightly but, they all seem to be pretty sure it's going to snow.

The National Weather Service (NWS) prediction (above) calls for 4-6" in the DC area, implying a 100% chance of snow, but not sure of the accumulation (understandable).  They also put expiration dates on their predictions, so they can change them without looking more unreliable than they are.

The Weatherbug app (below), which uses data from users, says the probability of snow is "near 100%," why not just go there?  C'mon, Weatherbug!  "You can doooeeeet!"  At least they have the confidence to throw out probability percentages like the big guys.

Of note, however, The NWS also thinks there's only a 50% chance of snow today, but 100% on Sunday -- and they think it will also be snowing on Monday (20%).

I'll be surprised if they're accurate, and won't pick on them anymore.  But, my experience is that, when they go all out and warn people more than 1 or 2 days ahead of when they think it will be snowing, they're wrong.  Conversely, when they *don't* warn you of anything serious: you get buried.

I'm still sick since last Tuesday, so at least this will give me something to think about other than Netflix while I drain my body of it's 4-6 inches of snot with a 50% chance of it letting up by Sunday.

UPDATES:

• Saturday, 1300 - NWS sends an SMS alert that it will start snowing in 110 minutes!  Accumulation also increased to 5-10 inches. 
• Sunday, 1630 - A few flakes are floating around Crystal City in Arlington, VA.  NSTR.

• Sunday, 2045 - Somewhere between 0" and 11" accumulation.  DC Gov't offices are closed.
• Monday AM:

JM(M)

2nd day back at work after 2 sick days ...

The Navy Yard Metro Station is probably not the most germ-free of places.

0159

... the opening scene from 'Apocalypse Now' comes to mind.

I probably should have canx'ed these last 2 days and stayed home in bed.  I got some work done yesterday that needed doin' but still -- the needs of the few may have outweighed the needs of the many despite Mr. Roddenberry's words from so long ago.  The current job, like those of so many others, is one of those deals where, the longer I'm not there, the suckier it is when I go back.  So any vacation taken is only pleasant for half of its total length because halfway in:  you're wrapping it up.  

So I went back.

Plus, it would have been a really crappy thing to do to take whatever infectious germies I had in to work and possibly bring down the other two folks I labor with ... they're nice people and don't deserve it.  Neither of them read this blog, so I can say nice things about them and they'll never know.

As of yesterday morning, the weather people (they call them 'The Capitol Weather Gang' here) are already warning everyone who still pays attention to them of some possible snow-action over the weekend -- or maybe not.  Maybe a Snowpocalypse -- or maybe not.  I don't think it's ever been called accurately here for the past 2.5'ish years we've been here.

And, whether we are treated to a big snowstorm this weekend or not:  it's Friday.  The weekend is here.  Since we arrived here in September of 2016, this has taken on the significance it once had like in the 1981 song.  While I am fortunate to now work a schedule that involves 'every other Friday off,' it's interesting to me to remember how I used to work a 10+ hours/day, 7-day week pretty much all year and *like* it.  I am lucky to have enjoyed a job like that for as long as I did.  

"Everybody's workin' for the weekend."  - Loverboy

JM(M)

... still sick ...

Second and, hopefully, last day of being sick ...

JM(M)

I can't believe I'm saying this, but ...

The media seems to have been getting it right. 

The 'two sides' are at a flat-out, nyeh-nyeh-I'm-not-listening-to-you-I'm-right-you're-wrong-I'm-big-you're-small impasse.  They. Just. Don't. Want. To. Give. In. 

Period. 

C'mon, government people, do something.  Something.  Maybe like Thomas Dewey did in his 1948 presidential campaign (against Truman), 'take the high road?'  Well .. then again, he did lose that election, no matter what the media thought was going to happen (and printed before it happened):

I didn't hear anybody say anything I haven't already heard for the past few weeks since the partial government shutdown began.  This is extra annoying to me because I got up from a cold-and-flu-medicine-induced sleep to watch these two 'speeches' that I hope my tax dollars didn't pay for. 

And I'm sick.  No.  Really sick.  That's why I'm taking this cold-and-flu stuff.

And I still set my alarm(s) up to watch the disappointment.

So there's that.

For historical purposes (in case anyone actually reads this in the future after most people have forgotten about this whole wall-thing), there was a mention by POTUS of a 45-minute meeting tomorrow.  I guess we'll have to stay tuned and see if anything comes out of that.

NOTE:

While I try not to discuss my political leanings via this medium, I am strongly reminded of the words of Rodney King:

Or The President ... or Jack Nicholson or whoever said it ...

JM(M)