Author Archives: f2x

New Day, New Job.

So it should be obvious that Gail is a completely black dog, right? But occasionally, the lighting in the room will impart a reddish or brownish hue on the fur, and the camera will pick up on that hue. That’s just a lighting thing, and I thought people knew and understood that. It’s like if you show someone a picture of a person holding up the leaning tower of Pisa, they understand that it’s just a perspective trick, and that the person is not actually holding up the tower.

But the weird thing is how many times people will remark, “Oh, is she a chocolate Lab?” when one out of the six pictures I showed them happens to have ambient lighting reflecting off the coat. I really kind of wonder how they would react if I said, “yes” to that question, because maybe they would just leave it at that, but no, I tell them that she is a black lab, and that it was just the lighting in the room.

For some reason they always double down and remark, “Really? Her fur looks brown right there! Are you sure?”

I would think I would know if my dog had brown fur, but now, no matter what I say at this point, the person is either going to gas light me or go full on stupid by insisting that my dog, who is obviously stark black in every other picture, is in fact a chocolate lab, and I just haven’t realized it yet.

I’ll be starting my new job next week, and at some point people are going to ask me questions about myself, and the subject of pets is bound to come up. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, so when I scroll through the photos of Gail on my phone, I will be waiting for that moment when the person I’m showing them to asks, “Is she a chocolate Lab?”

And this time I might just say, “Yes.”

Kudos

Thanks Big D and TOR for dropping off some jokes last month. They will finally be featured this week. Sorry about the delay. The submission page is still the best way to share jokes with me because they are automatically added to the queue.

No promises on when the next update will be. I’ll do my best to put something together when I find the time.

Pax,

-f2x

It’s not COVID

For the past 3 days I’ve been sick as a dog. I did that “at home” test they send you in the mail, and it was negative, so I guess I don’t have to quarantine. I just stepped out of the shower, so for the moment I’m experiencing some relief from the congestion.

If you noticed the picture up above, that’s my new car. It’s a 2022 Kia Niro EV, and it’s been jinxed. Since I got it, it’s already been in a wreck and had a flat tire. Hopefully I’ll be getting the car repaired in a week or two. It needs a new lift gate and the rear bumper needs repainted. I don’t know what the deal was with the tire. It just started going flat, but that was an easy fix.

After I bought this new car, I sold my Leaf. The dealership I bought my Kia from tried to lowball me on the trade, so I took it to the Kelley Blue Book website. Believe it or not, I sold it for over $1000 more than I originally paid for it. The dealer then tacked on another five grand to sell it on their lot. I’ve been watching my old Leaf on the Autotrader site. It’s a nice car, and I really hope it sells soon. (* Just checked. and it’s gone already!)

So yeah, this Niro is a fully electric vehicle (BEV). It’s amazing how many times I’ve had to explain to people that you cannot put gasoline in it. It has an advertised range of 239 miles on a full charge, and more or less, that’s what it gets. I’ve been limiting my charge to 80% and it easily gets around 200 miles of range. I charge it about twice a week.

One of my favorite aspects of this car is when you turn on the lane keep, lane follow, and adaptive cruise control while going down the highway. It’s not quite self-driving, but it’s pretty damn close. When traveling along a well marked road, I only have to occasionally bump the back of my steering wheel with my knee to keep the system active, and most of the time I can just relax and enjoy the ride. You actually can install Comma.ai with Openpilot on this car to get an even more robust self-driving effect.

Kudos

So it’s the strangest thing… Someone or something keeps posting stuff that’s not jokes to the submission page. They are surreal word salads that don’t make any sense. I’m just guessing it’s some sort of bot and added a challenge question to the submission page to try to block them. There is, however, one actual joke for this week. Thank you, TOR.

Pax,

-f2x

A personal update on what’s been going on in my life:

OK, so things have been happening. I’m still working at the same place. I even got a raise. I guess they like me. Lord only knows why.

I sold my Nissan Leaf for $1000 more than I originally paid for it and bought a new 2022 Kia Niro EV. It was rather expen$ive, but it’s a very nice car. I’ll probably do a rant about it soon.

I scheduled all the jokes in the queue. We run out after Tuesday. I’m not really too worried about it. It’s kind of hard to find any new jokes out there that haven’t already been published here, and the last few years have seen a lot of repeats/variations of the same jokes. You can’t publish new jokes when there aren’t any.

I am seeing a podiatrist. My feet are in surprisingly bad shape. The x-rays showed significant arthritis and of course lots of spurs, but thankfully no cancer. With enough cortisone injections and prednisone, I can stand to walk again, but this has some unpleasant and sometimes foreboding side effects. Getting old sucks.

So that’s the basics. I’ve been super busy, but at some point I would like to get back to ranting, making comics, and telling jokes. It’s just going to be a while.

Kudos

Thanks to those who added jokes to the queue. I know things haven’t been very active around here lately, but if you add a joke to the submission page I’ll eventually get around to publishing it

Pax,

-f2x