the iMentor

Hints & rants

This weB-LOG is about the musing of a technical consultant. It is the iMentor's thoughts on technology and the human condition.

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Grammar

March 22, 2023 Uncategorized No Comments
Episode #738 March 25, 2023 When we communicate we use language. Whether it is through gesture, speech or writing we convey an idea, one to the other. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc Sometimes all that is necessary to communicate is a nod. Sometimes it is a wave of the hand. Our faces communicate subtleties of emotion. It is why androids look like robots. It is why Zoom is better than the telephone. We depend on gesture in obvious and tenuous ways. A blind person must depend on intonation, volume and guttural sounds to understand a conversation because they cannot see. Speech requires vocalization and...
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Silicosis

March 16, 2023 Uncategorized 6 Comments
Episode #737 March 18, 2023 I have always tried to think a project through from beginning to end. I almost always do a mental walk through and in-depth research to nail down the details. Failure to do so always has consequences. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe_jt8Ad-Ho When Paula and I bought our house there was one unsatisfactory feature of the house. The master bathroom had a tub without a shower. In fact, the tub had not been used in years. When I turned on the tub water it ran brown. A shower could not be added because the tub sat under the low slope...
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Freak of Nature

March 8, 2023 Uncategorized 3 Comments
Episode #736 March 11, 2023 I am a freak of nature. Evolution has played funny tricks on me.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsewNuhKupk I was at a dental appointment around the age of fifteen. After X-rays the dentist told my parents: “Ricki was born without the seeds of wisdom teeth.” “Is that bad?” asked my father. “It is fairly common for wisdom teeth not to emerge … stay under the gums for a person’s entire life. It is less common for the wisdom teeth to never develop at all.” “What are the consequences?” asked my mother. “It is actually good news since there...
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Memory Retrieval

March 2, 2023 Uncategorized 3 Comments
Episode #735 March 4, 2023 Everyone has their own way of remembering. The older we get, the longer recall takes. In part this is because there is more memory to sift through. Also, older brains are less efficient than younger ones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddgN9FlEWgU Young people typically don’t have to wait to remember something. The memory simply occurs to them without effort. It is like a movie clip that spontaneously plays back in the rememberer’s head. Like short term memory, the long term memory of youth is available instantly. Their pile of memories is not deep. There is little time during retrieval...
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Insurance

February 22, 2023 Uncategorized 3 Comments
Episode #734 February  25, 2023 I am sitting in Craig’s garage being fitted for my first skydiving video camera helmet. It is a plastic helmet with a sheet metal enclosure for my Sony Hi8 video camera. Mounted to the front will be a Canon EOS Rebel SLR still film camera.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhnrvkptDtM My head is draped with plastic as Craig blows foam between my head and the helmet. The acrid smell is overwhelming. A slight pressure presses against my temples. This helmet will fit snugly and solidly on my head. Back home, I mount the video camera into the...
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Luck

February 15, 2023 Uncategorized 5 Comments
Episode #733 February 18, 2023 Propitious knew a lot about luck. He was impulsive. Planning on the fly and dead reckoning were his typical modus operandi.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VWJzHpEFf8 One winter day Propitious was playing ice hockey with his friends on the neighborhood lake. They had swept the snow off the ice to create a hockey rink and set traffic cones at both ends as goals. A long, cross-rink pass came skittering toward Propitious. He skated to an intersection, raised his stick and swung, hitting the puck solidly. The puck flew inches above the ice only to be slapped aside and...
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