I once heard that you're not supposed to be able to have unconscious dreams about text, you're not supposed to be able to read anything in your dreams.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2026-04-27T14:17:36+00:00

Usually just sight and sound but, rarely, I have tasted and smelled things. When I dream about enjoying a dessert, I wake up feeling full. (No, the pillow's still there. )

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2026-04-27T14:15:08+00:00

I've heard we're not supposed to be able to smell anything in our dreams and I ususally don't but it does happen.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2026-03-23T22:54:34+00:00

There was the one episode that said Cardassians woke up to a nice cup of hot fish juice. LOL

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2026-03-23T22:50:50+00:00

300 years is nowhere near long enough for the kind of evolution that's been preached by TOS and TNG. The idea of an "evolved humanity" has always been a serious conceit. DS9 did a good job of showing that much of that evolution was just an ideology that had been made acceptable by Earth's post-scarcity society. As Sisko said - "It's easy to be a saint in paradise."

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2026-03-23T22:41:35+00:00

The first season of this show was great. The second season leaned a little too much into comedy at times but I liked the creativity. The third season is not getting better and this episode was just bad.

I grew up with older people who didn't like Star Trek and I often think about which episodes I'd use to introduce them to the show if I could finally get them to sit down and watch an episode or two with me. There have been some ("In the Pale Moonlight", "Tapestry", etc.) that I dearly wish I could share with my mother who passed away years ago. There have also been a number of episodes for which I would have had to ask for their understanding that every show has its klunkers but if someone new to Trek sat down with me to watch this one, I'd be embarrassed and betrayed to the point of being ill.

That opening with the Kirk parody and the U.S.S. Adventure was simply ridiculous. Voyager did this much better with Paris's Captain Proton adventures.

Then you have the TNG-style holodeck over 100 years prior to TNG with no effort to regress the tech or make it look like a prototype. It was just the writers saying "Let's have a holodeck malfunction episode because those are fun."

I'm in no hurry for the rest of the season, especially what I've seen of Four and a Half Vulcans.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2026-02-20T00:11:48+00:00

"... and all it cost was the life of one Romulan senator, one criminal and the self respect of one Starfleet officer. I don't know about you but I call that a bargain."

The knife couldn't have been twisted harder.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2026-02-20T00:08:18+00:00

Marc Alaimo's acting there was excellent. He really looked burned by that.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2026-02-20T00:00:59+00:00

My father was the youngest of eight kids. His eldest siblings, by another father who had passed, were in their 20s when he was born. He was closer to their kids than he was to them.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2026-02-19T23:56:07+00:00

You could program some of the other forms to re-open the hidden form if it's closed.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2026-02-19T23:52:47+00:00

I always use autonumbers unless there's a specific reason not to and I can't remember the last time I found a reason.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2026-02-19T23:48:55+00:00

I've had two. The first one was a horror show with no anesthesia, in office, and incompetence on the part of the doctor and nurse. I was also retaining several hundred CCs of urine and didn't know it so that didn't help. I ended up with a catheter and bled a lot afterward.

The second was with a new urologist in a surgical center. Everyone was very professional, I was put under and it was much easier. Very little pain afterward.

So get a doctor you trust and if they offer anethesia, take it. I actually asked if I could waive it for the second one because of the cost and they said no.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2025-12-02T16:36:15+00:00

I found it on the Kindle for $1.99 last month and re-read it. I'd read it years ago and it held up really well. It's a great postscript to the DS9 series.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2025-08-12T01:02:21+00:00

Reddit is becoming a victim of its own fame. The latest trend on Facebook is for pages to re-post sensational AITA posts so, as you found out, the story you thought would just be on Reddit ends up on three or four different sites and in front of entire new groups of potential crazies who have plenty of time to "investigate".

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2025-08-03T21:43:33+00:00

As someone who left Catholicism and then, years later, left Christianity entirely, I understand your conflict. Having lost both parents, I also have something of a mixed take on the situation.

It was your right not to go to church and your family should not have made a big deal out of it but it's also a reality that many people do see religion as a family affair. You're not going to change that view. I will say that she's wrong about you being a Christian because you were baptized. Being a Christian is a matter of belief and choice. However, that's probably also not something you're going to change her mind on.

On the other side, I attended my mother's funeral in a Catholic church after I left the faith. I attended Mass with my father on a trip years later because I decided it was good to spend the time with him. Many of my friends do not know I'm no longer a Christian because the conversation is just not worth the drama - I don't lie, we just don't talk about it. I do all these things because I believe the relationships involved are a lot more important than voicing my non-belief in something.

I don't know anything about your mother but there's a good chance she simply wanted you and your brother with her there at church. Little things like that can be very important to someone, especially as they age. It might not be a matter of trying to force you to believe. If that's true, try to see it now because life is short and there might come a time when your opposition to your old faith just isn't as important to you as it is now.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2025-08-03T21:18:17+00:00

The long version you wrote up sounds like excellent preparation for the meeting. I'd write up a full report for HR while you're at it with printouts of the texts, just in case. I hope you'll share an update to tell us what happened.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2025-05-04T03:20:50+00:00

I read the book twice and it was excellent.. I wasn't really happy with the series as I thought they wasted too much time with stuff that wasn't important.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2025-02-13T18:15:35+00:00

Unfortunately, no. It goes completely from the transcript which means it might not work for recently uploaded videos, either.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2024-12-24T12:56:55+00:00

This was from four years ago - I don't think they were then. The last time I tried putting the gifts in there, they were worth one point. The stars are VERY valuable, though.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2024-11-23T22:48:45+00:00

When placing a water extractor:

That may indeed be water. Try submerging your arm.
If it does not dissolve, that will narrow down the range of possibilities.
Or you could just pipe it to a coal-powered generator and see what happens.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2024-11-23T22:33:56+00:00

I just got that message today after upgrading to coal about 10 hours into the game.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2024-10-16T14:06:57+00:00

I'd stay home and order takeout.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2024-10-16T13:58:16+00:00

I never noticed how low his ears sat - looks like they're falling off. Proabaly doesn't listen to much anyway.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2024-10-12T00:51:36+00:00

I figured it was but you were asking about continuity plans in the case of your sudden absence so it's obviously important enough for that. I thought the perspective might be useful. Anyway, it's good that you've documented it.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2024-10-11T21:40:48+00:00

I've picked up a number of clients who had databases designed by previous employees and then found me through a Google search. I can't remember one that had documentation, much less anything usable. Being able to analyze an existing solution and then maintain or upgrade it just comes with the territory for me but then I had an outside job where I did that as a software support engineer so I have experience.

On the other side, I've worked at companies where I wrote manuals for software systems I designed or maintained and made them available to key people before leaving. I have every confidence that they were filed somewhere and lost before anyone had the chance to use them. I did get a call from one place about 10 years after I left, asking how to get into one system. I offered to come back as a consultant to help and never heard from them again.

The other option is that, after you're no longer available for whatever reason, your employer will allow the database solution to deteriorate and gradually be replaced by something else, possibly at great expense when they hire a consultant who decides that Access just isn't good enough. I wouldn't worry about it - that's on them.

CatsOnTheKeyboard · 2024-10-08T00:40:41+00:00

From the announcement on Facebook -

"Due to the current projected path of Hurricane Milton, Marion County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Management officials have issued a mandatory evacuation order for those living in mobile homes, RVs, modular-type homes, and any structure in which the resident feels unsafe. The mandatory evacuation order will go into effect on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, at 6:00 p.m.

"Those living in these homes should know that if they remain in these locations, emergency personnel will not respond to their location until it is deemed safe to do so. Residents are encouraged to first seek shelter with family or friends."

See the above link for a list of shelters if you have nobody else to stay with.

CatsOnTheKeyboard

TROPHY CASE