10 Thoughts for November 10, 2014

1. Video: Like steampunk?  You might enjoy the 2004 Japanese stylized movie, Casshern.  The ending is very much Japanese-like -- unfulfilling -- but the blended visuals are epic.
2. Road Trip: I've just finished building a map of a route that'll take me through 10 covered bridges in Oregon, from Pleasant Valley in Southeast Portland, south through Stayton, around Albany and Corvallis, and back to Portland.  It'll take a whole day to do.  You can follow it, if you wish: Map.  It's based off the Covered Bridge of Oregon Society's map, except, my map is precise (some of their placemarkers were completely off) and with a route plugged in. Note that Google Maps does not allow me to input more than 8 points to build a continuous route.
3. Football: Kaelin Clay's dropped football at the one yard line, and subsequent return for a TD by the Ducks, was most certainly a game-changer.  Had Clay held onto the ball as he walked into the end zone, the score would have been 14 - 0 and the Utes would have been playing defense with an extra step.  Instead, the stadium and team were confused and shaken while the Ducks got a fire lit under their butts.  I feel sorry for Kaelin Clay, but at the same time, mental discipline is an important attribute in sports and those who have it go on to do well while the rest tend to either fail or never become the player everyone thinks they could be.
4. Football: The Jets beating the Steelers was unexpected, but I had to laugh when I read that the Bieber had met for bible study with the Steelers, apparently inflicting the Bieber Curse on the Steelers.  I'm at a loss for words, as it seem a contradiction that Bieber goes to bible study (given his propensity for drugs, speeding and cursing).  Hey, it's all okay, so long as you've got a gold cross on a chain around your neck, right?
5. Internet: You know, I feel bad for all of those people who rent Comcast routers.  DOCSIS 3 router modems are available for the equivalent of 16 months of renting.  Oh, and there is the issue of Comcast's routers having their USB disabled -- seriously, it is referred online as "future capability".  But the worst indignation, is that Comcast is renting you that router modem while it is taking advantage of a split wireless channel on that modem to give other customers access to the bandwidth that you thought you had paid for, for your sole use.  I mention all this, because I was researching whether or not I could hook up an external drive to my friend's Comcast router modem, to enable them to access saved content.  It really bugs me that people complain about spending money, but can't see the savings right in front of them.
6. Internet: President Obama officially announced his support to reclassify broadband so that we can haz Net Neutrality.  The technoscenti are all on board while all the idiots who place politics ahead of everything else in their life, have taken to the internet to express their displeasure. The stupidity of conservatives, is that they don't realize that without Net Neutrality, tech titans could slow the speeds to conservative outlets compared to liberal ones.
7. Politics: While a majority of Americans have low confidence in President Obama, the world at large seems to have a very high opinion of him, which contrasts to what the world thought of George Bush.  While true that it had peaked when Obama was first elected, it still remains exceedingly higher than under Bush.  I think if you were to ask people of most other countries if they thought that their leaders performed better than Obama when it came to economic recovery, they'd almost all say that they'd prefer Obama.
8. Chromecast: So, I'd been having trouble with casting a video with the stable channel of Chrome with the update from two months ago, so I switched my laptop to the beta channel (my desktop was already on the beta channel), and it works fine, now.  That's a bit ironic, that the stable channel failed but the beta channel worked. 
9. Ferguson: It's just a guess, but I think most people know that officer Wilson will not be charged with any crimes, and are therefore bracing for the consequential rioting that will occur. I also think that the feds will decline to prosecute officer Wilson on civil rights violations.  It's just going to be too difficult to get a conviction on either manslaughter, homicide or civil rights violations, when the facts of the case include Michael Brown directly assaulting the officer and trying to take his gun away.
10. Internet: Just ordered plumbing parts via Amazon -- technically I had a cart full of other stuff but weren't of high importance, whereas the plumbing parts were, and once I added them to the cart, I completed the transaction.  I had not thought to do so previously, but the savings are substantial over brick and mortar stores, even ones like Home Depot.  If you factor in the cost of gasoline to drive back and forth, we're talking a 30% savings, you know?  Next up: groceries?  Oh, there is one downside: My order of 7 different items is being shipped via 5 separate packages.  I can manage.