DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB

New York City's current dilemma is so depressing I finally decided to take my mind off current events by watching a movie.  I used the Crackle app on my iPhone and after some scrolling picked Dr. Strangelove, aka How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.  It is one of those movies that I saw snippets of back in the day of channel-flipping.  It is also the movie that got me to love the tune When Johnny Comes Marching Home.  Maybe it was the suspense and action that were pulsating on-screen, the tune is so memorable.

Without reading up about the movie, of all the times I saw short sections of the movie I didn't know that Peter Sellers played a few different roles in it.  What a talented man!  I knew him mostly as the clumsy Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther movies.  The Strangelove movie deals with nuclear annihilation but had its funny moments.  My favorite part is when Group Commander Mandrake asked a Colonel to shoot the Coca Cola vending machine to get him some coins so he could make a call to the President of the United States, to give the President the code to recall the B-52 bombers on their way to attack Russia.  The Colonel told Mandrake that if there really is no imminent nuclear war then Mandrake will have to face the wrath of the Coca Cola company.  Such absurdity is in many places throughout the movie.  Someone trying to reach some important general by phone and he was busy on the toilet seat and didn't even want to take the call afterward.  The Russian chairman insisting that he's more sorry than the U.S. President about the impending nuclear holocaust.  Some high-ranking general believing in conspiracy theories and putting in motion something that ultimately doomed the world.  Not a good choice of a movie that would cheer me up, even with the funny moments.  One man can really doom the world if not enough people try to stop him.

THE HISTORY OF LOVE

I picked up the book The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss, off the front porch of some house in Park Slope when I went for a run there last month, some day around Valentine's Day.  It is a common practice in that area of town, people just put stuff out on their porch to give away, sometimes with a sign that says "Free", other times none.  Sometimes I even carry books to the area and donate to the few Little Free Libraries in the area.  On that day, I failed in my mission to declutter because I think I also picked up some other books.

The History of Love sounds like an ambitious title, so grandiose, so historic.  It's sorta like the movie Inception, a book within a book.  Yes, there are characters inside the book that are connected to a book called, surprise surprise, The History of Love.  The beginning was pretty sad, much about an old man with no relatives counting the days until he dies.  So depressing, maybe that's why I couldn't get far.  Then a girl named Alma was introduced into the story, I didn't catch on right away that she was in the same universe as the old man.  As a matter of fact, in the same city, this great New York City of ours that is mostly a ghost town because of COVID-19.  In theory, with NYC on lockdown I should have plenty of time to read etc but I was just not in the mood for it.  Eventually I did and finished the book after a few nights as before-bed reading.  Once I saw how the story turned out, that the girl was trying to find the real people behind the book, that she would eventually meeting the old man, I went through the book much faster.  I did have to read the Wikipedia entry afterward to make sure I didn't miss anything.  In the old days, that would be a Cliff Note or Monarch Note.  Yup, I pretty much got the gist of the story.  Supposedly a movie was made out of it, but I am reluctant to see it so soon.  I'd rather see the movie, if I ever will, some time later when what I remember of the book is gone or mostly gone.  I think it's more enjoyable that way.

In the spirit of decluttering the house, I am thinking of offering the book to my local Buy Nothing group, although I am not sure if anyone will want it.  Who knows, when my local library first closed down for the immediate future I thought about raiding the nearest Free Little Library but I never followed through with the idea.

HURRY UP AND QUEUE UP

Like many New Yorkers, I have been hunkering down at home but yesterday I had to make my grocery trips.  I heard about the need to queue up outside the store, to keep the inside of the less crowded to maintain proper distance among the shoppers.  I finally experienced it and it was not so bad.  First it was the Chinese supermarket on my block.  It was rainy but there was an overhang outside the building to keep the people on the queue not as wet.  It was a good thing that the store had an employee at the sole entrance/exit to maintain order.  Some shopper, intentional or not, just blissfully walked into the store.  The people at the front of the store should be closer to the entrance but I guess there was no overhang there so they were some 20 feet away instead.  I recall when we lived under the Communist regime of Viet Nam, standing in queue was a new reality too.  Lots of things were rationed, we had to stand in queue to buy rice, sugar, etc.  As a teenager, I made a little money by getting in the queue to buy stuff for some of the neighbors in the apartment complex.  The queues then was a lot worse than what I experienced yesterday.  It didn't wrap around the block, even with people maintaining six-feet distance.

The queue at the Walgreen across the street from the Chinese supermarket was also short.  Maybe it had to do with the rain.  I don't mind rain at all and have this crazy idea that disease doesn't get distributed as easily when it's raining.  Not just because droplets don't stay in the air as long but many people don't like rain and rather stay indoor.  While I was standing in queue, some guy drove into the parking lot then asked if that was the line to get inside.  He then got upset and drove away.  You would think everyone knows this new reality by now but obviously some don't.

Even though the waiting, at both stores, didn't seem too long, it does add up.  When you need to make a grocery trip, allocate extra time for the queue.  It didn't happen at Walgreen but at Sun-Hing the line to pay was long, or at least longer than usual.

PICKUP LINES IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

Many people got creative now that they have a lot of times on their hand with having no places to go, to job to earn money from, nobody to hang out with, too.  Musically-talented ones wrote song parodies and even perform with guitar and such.  Heck, I myself took a shot at cartooning but I am not rich yet, still waiting for that rich patron to visit my Patreon web site.  I still have another cartoon idea but how about some puns and such.  There's a list of Covid-19 pickup lines going around so I decided to make my own lines.  Not that I need it, just something fun to do with the extra time on my hand.

COVID-19 pickup lines

Roses are red
Violets are blue
When pandemic ends
Let me be your boo

With curves like yours, I wouldn’t flatten any

How do I love thee?
Let me count the plies

I want to be forward with you
That’s just how my TP rolls

We are made for each other
Like macorona and cheese

I hope it’s only your smile that is infectious

With ventilators in high demand, I am afraid to look at you because you are so breathtaking

Let me serenade you while you wash your hands

I see you have P.P.E. but don’t you need some T.L.C. also?

I am sure under that N95 of yours there is a pair of luscious lips smiling at me.

FLATTEN THE CURVE - FINALE!

That's all, folks!  Gojira saved the day!!!  Just my silly idea of how one city can Flatten the Curve.  Of course, in the real world it doesn't work that way.  We just have to do our part and interact with as few people as possible.

FLATTEN THE CURVE - FRAME 3

Here it is, the long awaited conclusion to FLATTEN THE CURVE.  Well, actually no, I plan to have two more frames...

https://www.patreon.com/posts/flatten-curve-3-35299735

FLATTEN THE CURVE - FRAME 2

FLATTEN THE CURVE - FRAME 1

I need to get back into a routine.  One that includes me sitting down and draw cartoon(s) first thing in the morning.  It didn't happen today that's why only now I have my second post for Patreon.  The kicker is not that I lack ideas, I have many ideas, but somehow I just couldn't get started.  The fact that my wife uses my office as her work-office (she's lucky enough to still have a job and can work from home), so I don't have my stuff where I need them to be.  For instance, it took me a while to find the paper that I need to draw on.  I found something similar, but I need my stuff in one place, some place easy to find.

Without further ado, here's my idea of what the Japanese would do if their city got attacked by a Big Curve, frame 1 of more:

PATREON FIRST POST

There, I made my first cartoon for Patreon.  This one is a freebie!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/35220182

PATRONIZE ME!

When I was first told I won't be needed at the office any more because most, if not all, people will be working from home.  There's just no need for a desktop technician to be around, unless said technician can also work from home, but I am a contractor with limited access so that wouldn't happen.  I jokingly thought maybe it's time to follow-up on all those work-from-home spam email I regularly get.  I am sure there are a bunch of them in my Spam folder, thank you Gmail.

Actually, there is a more honest way to make a living from home, or at least make some beer money, even though I don't drink beer (or any alcohol for that matter.)  I heard much about Patreon, the platform for creative types to get patrons, subscribers who foot the bill for the creators to keep the creative juice going without selling their souls to the big corporations.  Or something like that.  It cannot hurt to try, I suppose.  I do have a lot of free time, my kid is all grown-up.

I am all set with Patreon, payment arrangement made, Patreon widget added to this blog's sidebar, why, I even have a couple of cartoon ideas to draw.  I suppose in the beginning I should try to cast a wide net and offer the 'toons to everyone.  I do worry that it won't be fun and game if I have to constantly bang out materials to keep patrons happy but let's get thing up and running first.

HIGHLIGHTS: CLASS OF 1982 WILLIAM COWPER JHS 73

Even before the current self-quarantine/lockdown scenario in New York and across the U.S., I already put in a lot of work for the general Newtown High School group on Facebook.  It helped that I inherited a stack of yearbooks from a popular teacher after his passing.  Besides scanning the yearbook pages, I also arranged for occasional luncheons and do research to help the members locate old friends.

With even more time on my hands, I also scanned pages of the yearbook for my own Class of 1985 at Newtown and even went back to JHS, namely William Cowper JHS 73 Class of 1982.  I know, the school is now named after a popular teacher who passed away in an accident, but for some reason the name has a hard time sticking in my head.  The yearbook, named Highlights, is not complete yet but you can find the first 10 or so pages at the following link:


https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.10150384086182542&type=3

TECH TIP: CHROME ENABLE-FEATURES PASSWORDIMPORT

I love discovering useful features of common software.  At all my previous workplaces, Internet Explorer 11, warts and all, was the default browser.  Or at least on the Windows 7 computers that I upgraded to Windows 10.  As a result, the need to transfer Chrome passwords from old machines to new machines was simply not there.  On a recent project, the need arose and I learned from another technician the -enable-features option.

On the old computer, go into Chrome Settings and export the passwords.  The user would have to supply the Windows password.  The file is saved as Chrome Password.csv in the place you select (flash drive, personal folder etc), guard it with your life!

On the new computer, make a copy of an existing Chrome shortcut then add to the Target field -enable-features=PasswordImport , as shown below.  Launch the Chrome copy, go to Settings then Password, you now have the option to import the list of passwords. Have user visit a few sites that require password to verify the import worked then delete the .csv file.  Also delete the copy of Chrome shortcut, just to keep things tidy.

FORD!

This week in Route-Art: Ford!  Actually, it was last week, but with this self-quarantine thing going on it is difficult to tell time.  To be exact, it was this past Saturday.  On Facebook, I help run an alumni group for my high school and other than uploading pages from the few yearbooks I acquired over the years, I try to do something different every now and then.  I've been using Posterino to make photo-grid of the teachers' faces, word-cloud of the teachers' names, and on Saturday it was a favorite teacher's birthday so I decided to use my skill in route-art to enliven the group's Wall.

The teacher's last name is Ford and there is a street not too far from me by the same name.  I wanted to do my run there, so I can name the run FORD BY FORD, but it is not close enough to walk over and would require a bus ride or a car drive.  Social distancing was already announced then so I decide to do it in my own neighborhood.  Little did I know that run would be one of my last runs for the immediate future.  These days I do rope-skipping in the backyard in the morning, then some time after lunch it's yoga in the dining room, both activities are done with my son.  Last but not least, I would do a mile or three on the elliptical in the living room.

Hope you enjoy this little Relive video of my Ford run!  Relive now offer for free one music track to add, sorry that's the best I can do.  After the run, I regretted that I didn't use kerning to keep the rest of letters closer the F.  Oh well!

TERRANCE QUARANTINO

Coming soon to a screen near you, the long-awaited Kill Bill: Volume 3 by yours truly!  It's my life-long dream to direct it and now that I, for all intent and purpose, have no job, no public library to go to, cannot even go out for a run, I have plenty of time and with today's technology, a movie can be made with just a smartphone and one person playing many different roles.  I already have an alias to go with the movie - Terrance Quarantino!

Seriously, I have no plan to direct any movie during this self-quarantine period many residents of New York City are going through.  No, I have no signs of infection, just no job because the place I worked have most people work from home.  Being a contractor doing physical computer setup, there's no future for me when this pandemic struck.  Normally I would spend a lot of time at the public library but that too is closed.  At first Brooklyn Public Library announced that they would operate at reduced hours, something like 1 P.M. to 6 P.M. and closed on the weekends.  Shortly after, it was announced that all Brooklyn libraries would just shut down.  Not that I would travel that far, but same thing for Queens and NYPL (which covers Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island).  So what's left to do?  Again, the normal thing, oh not so long ago, would be to go for a run.  I'm a slow runner but I can do a few miles out then back.  Ten miles, eight miles, whatever, something to do to take one's mind off the pressing matters.  Not anymore.  Now the outdoor is a dangerous place, you don't know who can infect you.  Who knows, soon we may be in lockdown mode like some other cities.

Time to hunker down and stay at home as much as possible.  Here's what I plan to do:

• Work on maintaining a Facebook group for alumni of Newtown High School (Elmhurst, Queens, NY).  If you attended that school and don't yet know about it, check it out at https://www.facebook.com/groups/47486807610/
• Resume maintaining a family tree that I started some years ago.  It is a lot of work, with people dying, being born, getting married etc, it needs updating every so often.  Well, for the immediate future, I do have time.
• With the library closed, one of my source of entertainment is no longer available.  Sure, Overdrive is available for digital content but I'm an old-school guy, I still watch movies on DVDs and such.  A sister of mine left a box or two of VHS tapes in my attic, I might watch some of those old movies after all.
• Last but not least, this blog needs more regular posting.  Facebook et al are nice but can be so chaotic sometimes.  I like to go back to old materials every now and then.  A blog is good for that.  It's just me and my own stuff, no need to wade through pages and pages of other people's stuff.

Hang on, COVID  Cave-Dwellers!