Bursar

In a week or two we'll have a guest from overseas.  One of my archaeology friends.  She's retired but formerly was a bursar.  If the term is unfamiliar to you, it refers to somebody who handles monetary matters for a University.  It being a long walk with an impractical, salty swim, she'll be arriving by air.  And the lead cabin crew attendant will be called....a purser.  Surely there is a connections.

Why yes.  

The base word here is appropriately Latin.  Bursa, meaning a leather purse such as you'd use for holding coins.  Actually the Romans swiped it, and a lot of more material stuff, from the Greeks whose word Byrsa means leather or hide.

Various words of a monetary nature ensue.  Bourse, which is a stock exchange in French speaking nations.  Disburse, to dispense money.  And of course, purse.

Purser used to refer to a petty official whose duties involved provisioning ships in the age of sail.  Somebody has to order the weevily biscuits and sketchy salt pork at exorbitant prices.  It has since become a more generalized term for somebody in charge of logistics on any travel conveyance.  Airline food does involve fewer weevils and one supposes the cabin crew lead deserves credit there.

Oddly disperse is not specifically about spending money.  Note the e instead of the u in purse.  The second half of the word actually references "sparse" in the sense of being infrequent, or scattered.  So to disperse something is to scatter it about.  Not recommended for the contents of your purse.

To return to the original point we do have an active itinerary planned.  Hopefully both the weather and our age related decrepitude pose no limits.  It would for instance be unfortunate to be laid up by "bursitis", inflammation of the structures overlying joints.  So named because they anatomically really are nothing more than small leathery pouches!

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Etymology extra credit.  Decrepit comes from a Latin word that means making a crackling noise.  A fair description some morning before stretching out and limbering up.  How limber derives from tree limbs which don't move very well at all is uncertain.

A Scaly Enigma

Seen on a recent walk.  Empty cages, a wooden hutch of some sort, empty aquarium tanks and a sign indicating the house did "Rescues" of unwanted reptiles.  I wondered where they all were.  But evidently this is still a going concern.  Maybe its just a bit of housekeeping.

Giant Punks

Well there's something you don't see every day.  It's autumn and the Giant Pumpkin growers are having their annual festival in a nearby town.

Those are some massive 'punks.

A conventional sized punk for reference.

Various of the Giant Punksters seem to have offices.  This is the Halloween Queen.  I also saw special chairs for the Pumpkin Master and Squash Master.  

Almost like gang colors.  Orange of course.  That's the weigh in station.  The forklift deposits them with a special sling.  The one just put on the scale was only 582 pounds.

Even getting the mighty vegetables onto the competition grounds is quite the operation.

Giant pumpkins have fascinated me for years.  The one time I attempted to grow them I got a measly 100 pounder.  I should not have been surprised.  I understand that each Giant takes 10 hours a week of your time and ridiculous amounts of garden space and water.  My little community garden plot was not going to suffice.

You'd think I'd have learned, but as my recent experience with Giant Leeks has shown, indeed I have not.  I got one batch of leek onion soup for my efforts.  I wonder how many pumpkin pies you can get from today's winning entry, which I understand weighed just over a ton!?

Robot School 2023

It's back.

In the summer of 2019, pretty much on a whim, I invited some promising middle school students to come work alongside the high school robotics team in an informal setting.  This was dubbed "Robot School".  It was a considerable success.  In fact there are a half dozen upperclasspersons now on the team from that casual experiment.  Most of them in leadership roles.

We had another, larger Robot School in the summer of 2021.  This was an official summer school class.  Seven current members "graduated" to Team 5826 from that crop, and another half dozen or so were direct invites from Robot School Children.  If you are looking for six or seven newbies a year to keep up with the lamentable tendency of students to graduate, this is a very effective recruiting and training machine.

Time to fire it up again.

This iteration is in the afterschool program and is limited to current 7th and 8th graders.  We set the limit for Robot School 3.0 at seven and it filled very quickly despite a 5am online signup time.  This was done so that employed people had a fair shot at getting their kids in.  The waiting list has 16 names on it.

Building a basic drive base.  This thing has been assembled and disassembled multiple times and is getting a bit beat up from that.  Oh, and from being crashed fairly often.

The return of Snack Challenge.  It takes various forms but is always something they should work together as a team to figure out.  Sometimes they don't get the extra good Robot School snacks if they can't manage a solution.  But this problem was significant enough that they needed to work on it with decent blood sugar levels.  And they did find a solution.

CAD designing a bracket for the next stage of the process.  This is a kid who had never touched a CAD program before.  Now something he designed is being laser cut for fabrication.

Another part of the crew is working on control systems.  They are over in the other room but do wave through the door way to be sociable.

Some excellent future team prospects in the bunch.  Current team members and coaches are trainin' them up right.

Oh, Deer.

The leaves are starting to turn colors, so deer hunting can't be far off.  I've had the trail cams out a few times in recent weeks.

Here's a couple of suspicious characters...

Somewhat more helpfully...

And another suspicious character....

I've also been out target shooting a number of times.  I have the rifle sighted in pretty well.  That does not mean I'm a great shot.  I blame a bad rotator cuff, but usually my first few shots are the best ones.  After that my arms must get a bit tired and perhaps I'm flinching as the recoil even from my modest caliber rifle does hurt.

Well, I always try to quit on a high note.  The other day I took my last shot at a ginger ale can at 90 yards.

That ought to suffice.

Anyway, we'll have a large family contingent hunting this year and even though I am clearly the worst shot in the bunch there should be venison enough to go around.

HypnoDog

Man's Best Friend knows what he likes.  Food. People. Sticks.  And most of all, Walks.  Sometimes he feels as if one or all of the above are not happening on schedule.  That's when he plops his head down and stares at me without blinking.  He's trying to send me mental commands....WALKTIME,WALKTIME,WALKTIME.  Unfortunately his brainpower wattage is pretty low so his HypnoDog routine is not very effective.

I think what he's trying for is the "Hypnotoad" from Futurama.  Behold his mesmerizing gaze...

 

And of course, somebody more talented than I has modified it for Dog....

Hope Springs a Leek

Back in May I stayed at The Bowes while excavating at Vindolanda.  Cool pints, warm curry, a good combination.  Like all pubs of a worthy nature it had its quirks.  Specifically they have been hosting a Leek growing contest for "Donkeys".  (Note, I'm feeling British today, Donkeys is short for Donkey Years or alliteratively Donkey Ears.  It means a long time.)

I decided to take up the challenge despite there being no realistic way for me to A) grow a monster Leek and B) fly over to England to triumphantly claim my prize.  But such details are only bothersome to small minds.

HERE is my post on the matter from back in June.

Recently The Bowes had their 2023 Leek Contest.  My goodness....

If I were judging I would check these bits of flora very carefully.  Look more like the lopped off tops of palm trees to me.   HERE is the local newspaper's account.

And as to my efforts?  Well I've planted (somewhat) carefully.  I've weeded (at least a few times).  I've given them water (when the sky fails to do so).  Can I still pull off a victory via an absentee entry?

Maybe next year.

 

A Remarkable Victory

It was custom in Ancient Rome, that when a general or Emperor won a victory over a mighty foe he would append the name of the vanquished enemy to his own.  Scipio Africanus.  Claudius Gothicus.  And, as above, a chap known primarily by his Victory name, Germanicus.  On the coin  he is striking particularly heroic poses.  On the left he is presumably riding in a Triumph, the celebratory parade through the streets of Rome that was granted, if rarely, to those of true Greatness.  It was customary to ride through an array of captured weapons, treasures and prisoners.

Well, I can't claim quite that much of a victory last week.  For that matter mighty foes are in short supply.  Goths are pasty faced and drowsy these days and somehow dubbing yourself Ikeacus after figuring out an especially devilish bit of Scandinavian furniture assembly seems a little excessive.

But still...

I'm part of a very dedicated, hard working group of volunteers that had been asked to trudge through about four and a half hours of the most tedious, poorly assembled training videos imaginable.  And I have a good imagination.  A large portion of it did not related to us at all.  I mean, the nature of being a volunteer is that paychecks, vacation hours and so forth don't exist.

When the pile of dreck turned out to be even steeper this year I decided enough was enough.  I started a discussion with The Powers that Be with the end result being....."ah, most of you can skip that stuff".

A resounding victory over insensate Bureaucracy!

It has been commemorated in a video that is best summarized by one of my UK friends:                "Marvelous, weird, un-nerving - and excellent work". 

All or most kidding aside, sometimes things get so ridiculous that even the bureaucrats take your side!

New Wheels

Over time your vehicles evolve.  You start out with a student days junker.  Then comes a mini van with car seats for the kids.  Then something a little smaller and snazzier that can still transport a grand kid or two.  And then what?

Of late our transportation needs have been under discussion.  We still have various members of the family to haul about.  Some have two legs, some have four.  Sometimes trailers get involved.  Perhaps a defunct deer now and again.  So when my wife and I discuss trading something in and getting a new vehicle it gets complicated.

Starting with "whose turn is it for new wheels"?

I'm lobbying for a smallish pickup truck for me.  So far the lobbying campaign is going poorly.  But recently I had a Sign, an Omen, a Portent.  Surely a nice little truck will make me more efficient in all that I do...

In case you can't make it out the small red lettering on the door says:

"Accelerate your Productivity"

Long Shadows

Fall is in the air and you can perceive it in subtle ways.  On our morning walks the sunlight has a steeper angle and a different quality to it.  It makes for some interesting perspectives.

Does one become a Mighty Forest Wolf just because you found a good stick?

Do you become a Giant just because someone looks up to you?

Happy First Day of School

I had the grandkids running around outside on a nature oriented scavenger hunt.

Grandchildren grow from the smallest beginnings into tall and impressive things....

While grandpas just get bumpier and chubbier....

 

Breaking the You Tube algorithm

I think highly of YouTube.  In fact I consider it one of the more useful elements of the internet.  If I want to learn how to fix an obscure fault in a 3D printer, or find vintage photos of Newcastle England, or dig up a half remembered poem read by JRR Tolkien, well its all there.

My problem with it is the crap it recommends to me.  Gee YT, no thanks.  I'll simply look up the things that interest me.

YouTube of course sees it otherwise.  They are owned by Google.  And they make money by selling information about me to advertisers.  Things I click on.....straight away get put into their database on me.  

The algorithm by which YouTube figures out my interests, and then sells them to hucksters and villains, is complex and secretive.  And as I've mentioned a time or two, about a year ago I set out to break it.

First of course you disable the Watch History function.  I mean, why make it easy for the Tubers?

You then get a scattergun assortment of what YouTube thinks you are or should be interested in.  Some are reasonable guesses.  Food.  Cars.  Disgusting videos of veterinarians draining horse abscesses. What?  Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Now this is the time consuming part.  While doing other things, like listening to a ball game, pull up the YouTube page and just start rejecting things.  There are various functions to do this.  The blanket "Do not recommend this channel" and the more focused ones proclaiming things to be scam, child abuse, disgusting, etc.  Refresh and repeat.

I'll give the algorithm credit.  It tried everything.  Chess, RC cars, Malaysian political news, lots of vampy Tik Tok stuff. 

After a while it made its last stand on assorted music compilations.  These usually run for hours on end and have names like:  Jazzy Coffee, Cozy Rain, Chill Cafe Music etc.  Their niche market looks to be insomniacs.  Or people who are up all night studying.  I hit DNRC without mercy.

There are hundreds, maybe thousands of tedious variations on the Coffee, Jazz and Rain to help you sleep themes.  After a bit I suspected YouTube was cheating, sending me channel recommendations after I had ordered it not to.  It took a while but after compiling a list (yes, I should have more important things to do) I caught them at it.  Clear cheating by repeat recommendations of Rain Sounds for Sleeping, Smooth Jazz BGM (that is back ground music btw) Cozy Coffee Shop Jazz and Coffee Relaxing Jazz.

At this point the algorithm was getting desperate, throwing puny, unconvincing recommendations at me like underage half trained cannon fodder.  It was also clearly swiping ideas from the handful of Youtube channels I follow.  Towards the end it was putting up drone videos of historic sites in England.  They had perhaps a dozen views.  Sometimes I was the first person to look at them.  All got rejected.

I almost felt badly for the unfeeling algorithm.  I'd hit refresh repeatedly and it would send me nothing.  There in fact was nothing left, I'd been shuttled into some subroutine where it just gave up.  Eventually it put up this note of abject surrender:

And nothing else.

So I have finally made Youtube into what I wanted it to be all along.  A place I can go to check in on a few channels I follow and to look up whatever specific things I'm interested in.

I sleep fine at night without 12 hour compendiums of Rainy Nights in Tokyo.  And if I ever do need to know how to drain a veterinary abscess I'll know where to study up, even if this is as I suspect just a punitive measure from an algorithm willing to commit small petty atrocities once it knew defeat was inevitable.