The ramblings and musings of Nancie Neal
Sunday, December 25th, Both Elizabeth: Heritage Journey (the collection) and Elizabeth: Transformation for Kindle is free!
Merry Christmas!
If you missed this, don’t fret. I give away my books as much as KDP allows. Click on my links page and follow any of my social links to be notified of free books, short stories, and blog posts.
Neuralink makes me nervous. I mean, the concept is brilliant: Create a way for humans to link to the internet and each other. I believe this would help keep miscommunication-based fight to a minimum, help people with mental disabilities (like ADHD and schizophrenia). And the ability to connect to the internet at will sounds awesome.
What makes me nervous, it that this is probably the Holy Grail of mind control. I don’t think it will happen under Elon Musk’s watch, but he can’t live forever. Whoever takes over might not have the same vision as Elon, and at best, see it as a means to manipulate people for money or at worse, use it to control the minds of people to make perfect drones for his/her own version of an ideal society.
When the creator leaves a company or dies, usually the original vision goes with them.
Unlike other companies and tech, once you realize the evil that is developing around the new CEO, you can’t remove the device. If that’s not giving off mark-of-the-beast vibes, I don’t know what will.
For some odd reason, it brought up a vague memory of me reading something somewhere about camera glasses, haptic feed back sleeve or patch, and the blind, causing the blind to see. The sleeve or patch would give feedback from the camera, creating a low-resolution “image” on the skin. Eventually, the subject caught on and could move throughout any unknown environment easily, as if they could see. But I wasn’t sure where I’ve seen it, or if it was just a dream.
I tried explaining this to my husband, who thought it was interesting, but I got the vibe that he didn’t quite believe me, or maybe he was just worn out from working. So I did a quick search and turned this up: Obstacle avoidance for blind people using a 3D camera and a haptic feedback sleeve
Vindicated! It would seem I wasn’t dreaming or experiencing the Mandela effect – which was another possibility.
This got my mind going, and I wondered if it is possible to do this with brainwaves. The idea (in my head, at least) was to translate brainwaves into some form of haptic feedback, then train a second person to “read” it (and vice versa).
I told this to my husband, and he suggested that instead of a haptic sleeve, what if you use sound?
But earbuds and headphones would make it difficult to hear your environment, is what I thought.
It didn’t take me long to remember something about bone conductive headphones and I decided to check out Amazon. Bought a pair for $20 (cyber Monday FTW!). The only problem is the adjustability. It was a little big for my head.
But what about the EEG device itself? All those wires and connections, it’s probably not reasonable to wear all day.
Well, Actually…
Muse 2 (not an affiliate link, wish it was)
It’s less than $200, but the problem is that there’s only four channels (two for t). I don’t think that was enough, so I thought I would do a little more searching, and found Emotiv Epoc X for the low price of $849 (as of this post). It had 14 channels and x-y sensors so it’s meant for developers. The site insists that it’s not a medical device, but that’s not what I want to use it for anyway.
The idea (at least in my head) was to use the output of each channel to send a tone to the headphones, each a different pitch, adjusting it until the tones do not interfere with day-to-day sounds. The second device would send it’s signals as sound to my headset (probably using phones or a raspberry pi) and vice versa. Then the victi… er… I mean volunteer and I would train with our headsets once a day.
I suspect training would first entail us looking at flash cards together to get the “feel” (or sound?) of the devices working. Then we would sit back to back and try to guess what’s on the flash card.
Since I don’t have the money to do it, I only can daydream – or find some way to make a little over $2000 and try it myself.
(image credits)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EEG_Recording_Cap.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Three_quarter_view_of_EEG_subject.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Emotiv_epoc_2014.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neuralink_Logo.png
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2021.634147/full
https://pixabay.com/photos/the-medicine-study-electrophysiology-4764731/
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2201.04453v1.pdf (screenshot)
… Or so I’m told.
My husband and I wanted to fill our freezer with beef. He finally fixed it enough for us to use. The cover still needs a replacement seal, but since it’s winter, we’re not worried about energy loss.
A couple of years ago, we tried the Meat Market west of Tyler.
The meat was great, but the price was a little rich for our blood, not to mention they sourced the meat from Wisconsin. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but we were working to get all of our supplies from local businesses and farms.
Then there was the butcher we kept passing by on our way to church. We’ve been wanting to stop by for a while, but it’s difficult to get out during the week when they’re open, because of Mike’s work schedule.
We did finally stop, and we got a pamphlet and I bought some soup bones, which made some tasty stew.
But it was another week before we could stop again.
I’ve always thought they were open on the usual business days (Monday through Friday) so when we finally had a chance, it was Monday… and I was wrong. But when I tried to take a picture of their hours, the owner opened the door and offered to help us out anyway, since he was in doing paperwork (a perk of a private business).
We made our order for 1/4 cow to be picked up the following week, although we could have gotten it sooner, but we had planned to travel that weekend and we picked up our order the following Wednesday. I got some free oxtail (the upper half of the cow’s tail) for bone broth out of the deal.
They gave a choice between all grass-fed or grain-finished, or whatever comes first. We picked whatever comes first, because to be honest, I happen to love the gamey taste of grass-fed and the even flavor of grain-finished equally. They each have their own merits.
So we end up getting mostly grass-fed with a few pieces being grain finished.
Half of it was ground beef, which brings me to the price.
Just under $1000 (995) dollars for a quarter cow- that’s almost $10/lb. Granted, local grown beef has a tendency to be pricey, but it was way more than the usual market price for hanging weight for *grass-fed* cows (they don’t differentiate in the price).
If you are rich, by all means, go there for your meat. I highly recommend it. The service was awesome, the staff was friendly, and the meat tasted great! As for us, I will still go there to get soup bones, and probably organ meats, but a friend of ours is splitting another cow with us for considerably cheaper for us.
You can check out their website here: https://www.cutbeef.com/
We also got a couple of free Kozies out of the deal. The insulated bag (featured picture) I bought to add to my collection of reusable shopping bags, but that’s a blog post for another time.
“They [the media] are doing you dirty.” – Connor.
I love watching non-Americans who are not Journalists talk about the US. Their perception is a lot more down-to-earth. They discuss their visit to the US and one racist encounter – in Detroit.
I woke up feeling better, but my back still gets stiff every time I sit for long periods of time.
Reaching down for anything is out of the question.
I have been taking this downtime to make plans and hash ideas.
One thing I put on my to do list is to change my blog theme, again. This one isn’t “cutting it.”
Tomorrow will be a better day.
Tomorrow changes are coming… starting with my blog.
My head felt like cotton when I woke up yesterday morning. It was my turn to deal with the virus that had been going though the family all week and it was bad timing.
I texted the ladies’ group and let them know I won’t being joining them for brunch.
Took a shower, hoping the steam would help my sinuses. Got out, pulled on the first pant leg, and felt an unmistakable click in the lower part of my back.
To think, I spent the good part of Friday digging out one of the garden beds. Lifted bags of soil to fill the earth boxes, and I ruined my back by putting my pants on.
I spent the better part of the tossing and turning, taking care to stretch my back before falling to sleep.
My back didn’t hurt so much, but my head still felt like it was going to explode. I spent watching the church’s lives stream on YouTube, surrounded by tissues.
Around two o’clock, I finally decided to take a caffeine nap, popping an ibuprofen just before laying down. Twenty minutes later, Mike came in laughing at some meme. Fortunately, I was already about to get up and I felt so much better.
I helped Mike with the new chick’s temporary home as we work to integrate them in with the flock. Then I dug a little more in the garden, but only to get more soil for the earth boxes. It turns out, the soil I bought wasn’t quite enough.
Today wasn’t so bad, despite the problems. I still feel like I was productive and definitely have a good outlook for this week.
The problem with writing is the research. There’s been a few stories of writers who get the dreaded knock at the door. While the Trash Taste crew are talking to a chemist, he happens to have a similar problem when researching chemicals.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
This one has to do with a single rule (see part 1 and part 2: Don’t use cliche openings.
Inspired by the last two, I made this into one big cliche’d story (original).
I’m not editing this mess. TW – mixed tenses.
It was a dark and stormy night during the best of times and worst of times, once upon a time, in a land far away.
There lived a teenage princess who didn’t want to fit into social norms. So she threw out her dress, put on her leather outfit, and couldn’t decide on who to love between two men who pined for her daily. One was a jerk to her, and the other was a Nice guy who bought her roses, and candy and stared through her window from the bushes daily, wondering if she would ever choose him over the jerk.
Then the World was in trouble, An asteroid was headed for her kingdom. The king tried to prevent her from going out. In the ensuing struggle with the guards, she was cornered at a window with no escape. It looked like that she would be captured and brought to her room to die with everyone else.
Suddenly, a dragon appears at her window saying that she was the chosen one and whisks her away where she is trained by an elderly and wise wizard who tells her that when the asteroid hits, there will unleash an evil that no one has ever known.
Meanwhile, the king and the two men go out to save her from the dragon, not knowing that she went willingly. They constantly tried to one-up each other in mini contests.
In the mountains, the princess goes on a quest to find the unobtainium, which will stop the evil. She meets up with the two men and a fight between the two ensues, while the princess tries to stop it. The asteroid lands and kills both men.
Then, the asteroid cracks open and out jumps an alien who wants to destroy the land. The princess immediately fell in love, and the Alien was taken by her. It turns out that the unobtainium was in her all along and love conquers all.
Copyright note: Just steal it and make it your own slap-stick comedy. Let me know when it’s published. I’d love to read it.
After writing the last short story on Blogger, I thought I would give it another shot (see the original; I edited this one a little).
Prologue: The wise white wizard in his white flowing robes. The wind made them flutter around him as he turned towards the other white wizard.
“Wise friend.” He stroke his long beard thoughtfully. “I’ve been watching the stars align, and it’s time to find the chosen one.”
The other wizard stroked his identically long beard and fluffed his identical robes. “I believe you’re right. One of us will have to wait until someone finds the OBJECT OF IMMORTAL CHOOSABILITY.”
“So, who gets to go down to tell the chosen one?”
“Does it matter? We look alike.”
###
A massive storm loomed over the horizon, and Joe made the decision to go home before the storm hits. It was fun running slow motion on the beach, winking at the gawking hot babes sitting on the sand. He knew that it would be a wet ride on his Harley if the storm hit.
As he turned towards the boardwalk, his long blond hair whipped around his face, blinding him for a moment. He didn’t see the object that jutted out of the sand, and he tripped over it, bringing his massive muscular body down with a muffled thump.
Taking a quick look around him to make sure that no one saw, he began to do pushups as if that was his intent. Realizing that the coast was clear, he stood up and saw an object on the ground. It was so strange that it was indescribable.
A flash of lightning crossed the sky followed by a crash and boom, and there in front of him stood this old man with a long flowing beard and a long flowing robe.
“You found the OBJECT OF IMMORTAL CHOOSABILITY!” The wizard boomed loudly. It was so loud that Joe had a hard time hearing him. Something about being the chosen one and to save the world. Then something about the object will guide him.
The wizard disappeared, and the OBJECT OF IMMORTAL CHOOSABILITY began to shake, and Joe felt it tug at his hand. The rain came down, causing his shirt to stick to his burgeoning muscles.
Suddenly, all hell broke loose, and a ton of demons came out of the ground, all maniacally laughing. They were so grotesque, they couldn’t be described.
“So u air the choosin one, eh?” One demon hissed evilly.
“He ain’t no choosin one, he’s too ‘andsome, he is.” Another retorted.
“Enough!” A third one growled boomingly. His voice echoed across the land. “We are to kill him! Stop being so petulant!”
At that moment, the object shivered, and Joe held it out. It sparkled and morphed into a long sword. Smirking, he realized that all of the years studying the blade was going to come in handy. He slashed at the first demon, and it caught him under his arm, the Demon screamed and slashed back, but Joe cut his hand off.
Another demon hit him in the back, tearing at his shirt. Joe windmilled his sword, and it cut the offending demon in two along with two other of his fellow evil entities who just happened to be in the way. Joe turned to the remaining 50… no 100 demons all glaring angrily at him.
Snarling, Joe grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled. The tears that were created by the demon gave way easily and the shirt ripped off easily, exposing his quivering muscles. The rain caused them to glisten, and his surging adrenaline caused his veins to pulse.
Joe put his other hand on the hilt of the sword, and it flashed. Suddenly, there were two swords, and he brought them down to his sides. Lowering his head, he kept his eyes on his adversaries.
He walked towards them at first, then he sprinted. He leaped into the air, screaming on top of his lungs.
“Yeeeeeeaaahh!” he screeched mightily as he slashed through four demons. They came from left and right, and he slashed each one like a knife through butter.
There were too many of them, Joe thought. I have one last option.
He took his swords, held them out, and began spinning. What’s left of the demons was annihilated. Pieces of them floated to the ground and disappeared.
When Joe was finished, he looked towards the sky. The rain had stopped, and the sky cleared. He heard a chuckle and looked down.
A few people stopped to watch. Some had their phones out, and some looked on, horrified.
Joe cleared his throat. I killed it; he thought as he tugged at the waistband of his sweatpants. They admire me for my swordsmanship skills.
He scratched the stubble on his neck, picked up his fedora, put it on, and tipped it before walking away.
