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Welp...just got back from a doctor's appointment for some routine bloodwork. Good news is I'm down to 159 lb--this in all clothes less shoes and with a big meal in me. Bad news is, somehow, I've *shrunk* about 2 inches, and can no longer use the phrase "six-foot dyke in steel-toed work boots." I mean, "five-foot-ten dyke in steel-toed work boots" doesn't have quite the same punch to it, you know? But the measure doesn't lie: 178cm, 5'10" on the dot.

And no one can tell me WTF happened there. If my mother's any indication there's almost 20 years still to go to menopause, and I haven't lost any bone or muscle mass. A co-worker about my age says she lost an inch a couple of years ago and the doctor told her it was bad posture, but I don't slouch, so...who knows?

Odd. This bugs me more than it ought to to be honest.

Alison Angel of all people. I was quite dumbfounded.

This particular photo is completely appropriate for your workplace - but no others you have been warned!

Just now a ravishingly lovely young nanny responded to my acceptance of her Friendship request by asking about my family then but minutes later letting me know that she loved me than one or two minutes more asked me to marry her.

I sincerely pointed out that I would be honored were she to accept my sincere offer of friendship.

Not long at all after that she informed me she needed me to buy her an iTunes card Right Now so I instantly blocked her.

That's the third time that I've been approached with quite likely the single most-popular romance scam.

I assert it's vitally important you learn to be a judge of character lest you fall victim to scammers.

This Means you: among my very worst experience as a consulting software engineer was getting stiffed for seven solid weeks of sixteen-hour days.

Happily my tormentor bailed and so sold her site when she was one of the very first to get the bad news that the Dot-Com Crash hit one month before.

I still have my source for a truly fascinating graphics application and have consulted experts who assert that I own its copyright because that particular client never paid me for it.

Real Soon Now you'll find it as an iPad App in the App Store. I'll drop you a dime once it's there.

XXXTentacion: Controversy rages after rapper's shooting death

The killing of US rapper XXXTentacion has set social media ablaze: vicious arguments have broken out about how to memorialise such a problematic figure, as fans pore over conspiracy theories about the perpetrator and even question if the rapper was killed at all.

Florida police have confirmed the 20-year-old, born Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy, was shot dead on Monday.

Despite this, fans are probing videos purporting to show him after the shooting. Posts online point out potential discrepancies in his facial tattoos and question the lack of visible blood, bullets and shattered glass in the footage. Some suggest his death was faked as part of an elaborate prank for a future video release.

A video from several months ago of XXXTentacion denying his own death (after an apparent suicide prank on his own channel) has also re-circulated widely, leading to further confusion.

[...] He spent much of last two years in and out of jail or on house arrest.

At the time of his death he was awaiting trial for beating and falsely imprisoning his former partner, Geneva Ayala, having already pled no contest to charges of home invasion robbery and aggravated battery with a firearm in a separate case.

I made this unaccepted submission about him a few weeks ago:

Related: Spotify Removes Two Artists From Playlists Due to "Hate Content and Hateful Conduct"

My son has cerebral palsy which leaves him with very low fine finger and joint control.

(Quite) A few years back, we bought a Wii because we thought he'd be able to play games just by waving his arm around.
Wrong.
Too much of ALL games took clicking or trigger pulling, etc, so we have to help him if he has any chance of advancing the game.
Mario kart with a steering wheel is okay, but he can't react fast enough to keep up with the other cars (it's hard enough for this 50-ish year old, lol)

I saw a Sesame Street game for the Xbox Kinect.
The question is, would the Kinect be better for him? Are there games he could play just by waving his arms or making punch motions or just moving?

Thanks for any good advice anyone can give.

I wrote in a prior journal that I had an upcoming date with a married woman I met while at a playground a few months ago. Last Friday I had that date.

We met at a fancy bar. It was the kind of place that had a wine menu a dozen pages long. Very classy place. I arrived first, and she showed up a few minutes later. She extended her hand for a handshake, but I refused it and went in for the hug. She was a little surprised.

The conversation was fantastic and flowed easily. Eventually there was a natural point in the conversation where I could bring up/ask whether or not we were actually on a date. She said she wasn't sure. I let her know about my open relationship status and she said that they have a more Don't Ask Don't Tell type setup.

I'm really bad at remembering exact words. I more remember the 'feel' of the conversation. I got the impression that they used to have a DADT setup, but since her daughter they kinda stopped, but in an unsaid way. It wasn't exactly clear. I did say that I didn't want to be 'that guy', and that I don't want to cause problems with their family.

Anyways, we continued the evening and later a live band came on and started playing. We got up to dance at one point. As we danced we caressed each others fingers in a soft and erotic way. It almost felt as if sparks were jumping between our fingers.

We sat back down and ordered another drink. She ordered another after that 'to find an excuse to prolong the night'. Eventually it was almost 1:00am. She had to run a 5k with her daughter the next morning (I felt terrible for her the next morning). We left, I kissed her, and she hopped into her Uber.

It was an amazing night. I think it was the best date I've been on since I started dating again.

Elder Scrolls VI Officially Announced

The revelation of The Elder Scrolls VI at this year's E3 came as a complete surprise for most gamers, since no one was really expecting news about the open-world adventure. The teaser trailer is only 36 seconds long, and it opens up with a foggy flyby of a large mountainous area.

[...] Unfortunately, there is no gameplay, no details on the characters, no information on the story, and nothing about the mechanics, physics, or technology other than that game director Todd Howard revealed that the current generation of home consoles are not not powerful enough to run the game, including the Xbox One and PS4.

I take this to mean that Xbox One X and PS4 Pro are also not powerful enough.

Recently it was leaked that Microsoft was working on various products, including the next Xbox "Scarlett" for around 2020. There were no technical details. However, there have been reports about the AMD CPU and graphics architecture that will be used in PS5 (and maybe Xbox):

PS5 Possibly uses AMD Ryzen CPU as Sony Appears to be Actively Working with the Tech – Rumor

Sony working with AMD on PS5 gear

What we might see is the same 8 core count in these consoles, except using more powerful Ryzen cores, possibly on the 7nm GlobalFoundries/TSMC node. Maybe they will have 2 threads per core instead of 1.

Here's a bit of Navi news:

AMD’s Navi will be a traditional monolithic GPU, not a multi-chip module

Coyote and apple in rural New Mexico

• Powerhouse

tl;dr: So as to make The "Global" Computer Industry Index truly Global, I listed all of ARM's and Synopsis' shops and many but not yet all of Oracles but decided to totally bail on Oracle when I met an SAP coder at Starbucks this afternoon. He said to me that "Oracle are amateurs."

I devoted a few paragraphs to my very-most beloved fan:

As I write this, SAP has over 2,800 open reqs world-wide.

One of my online friends as well as one of my online - I Am Absolutely Serious - enemies are completely convinced there are no jobs to be had, and that advertisements of job openings are purely for the consumption of potential investors so as to drive up stock prices.

And friends, that really does happen! I Am Absolutely Serious. Among my Real Life friends is a serial entrepreneur whose startup dwindled down to just one employee - my RL friend himself - whose Venture Capitalist gave him a free office at the Venture Firm's headquarters in hopes of somehow salvaging his investment.

Rhat Real Life friend advertised two positions throughout the Dot-Com Crash. And Why?

"So our creditors don't try to collect."

Had his company's creditors demanded payment, they could have forced my Real Life friend's startup into Chapter 13, thereby leading all of his startup's assets to be sold at auction with the proceeds being divided among those his company's creditors who lifted a finger to turn up at his corporate bankrupcy hearing.

It happens that I think of him whenever I shampoo William Jefferson Clinton.

In other news, NedSpace's alleged "24-hour showers" close each weekday at six as well as throughout the weekends.

This after I purchased a brand-new Gillette Mach 3 Turbo handle and enough generic yet excellent quality "Mach 3[*] Compatible" refill blades to give close, comfortable shaves to a herd of bison.

[*]"Mach3" is a Registered Trademark of Gillette. Our generic yet excellent refill blades are in no way endorsed or sponsored by Gillette. Despite that, our refill blades' price puts those of Gillette's Completely To Shame.

I have designs on a certain stone-deaf and so quite shy young lady so I managed to tidy up in the Men's Room but eventually concluded I had not the wherewithal to purchase an admission ticket for the South-East Portland "Entertainment" Venue where she and I are both regulars.

But I'll be Rolling In Samoleons Real Soon Now.

Send Them All Your Money: Portland Rescue Mission.

I gave them a thousand dollars in December. They bought a new water fountain - the old one was always breaking down. This new one has a spout for filling water bottles.

I have some data entry work that I want to give to a homeless person. If my friend Chena shows up sometime soon I'll give it to her.

Whoever I hire is going to transcribe all the street addresses of the companies I list into a database. I want to send direct - ie. junk - mail which will politely request that they verify their listings are correct and oh by the way I could use some donations right about now.

(Donations to Soggy Jobs are not tax deductible but may be in the future. I might make Soggy Jobs a non-profit but am as-yet uncertain. I am quite certain that I will never charge for listings so I don't want to accept investment. To be a tax-deductible non-profit would enable me to apply for grants.)

Stefan Youngs pointed out Dave Taylor's Call To Action: "Buy Me A Coffee". However I expect that many who would otherwise buy him a coffee are distracted by the three different options Taylor provides, one of which is to buy him lunch.

Such Calls To Action are required for direct sales advertising but not for brand awareness campaigns. To quote Dave Johnson, the owner of Working Software:

"Do you know why direct mail offer letters always say BUY NOW! DON'T DELAY!"

"No, why?

"Because it works."

Next month I will add crypto donation options to my Calls To Actions, the month after that I'll do something else until I arrive at a CTA that yields the most income.

(Has anyone bought me coffee yet? I Shall Pray To Paypal... Stefan did, but just so he could verify that I implemented his suggestion correctly. Even so I'll keep this CTA up for an entire month; at that time I'll calculate the ration of hits to coffees, as well as unique visitors to coffees.)