This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter). Posts here are rare these days. For current stuff, follow me on Mastodon

Categories

Calendar

March 2024
S M T W T F S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31  

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Cause It’s A Book

We’re here. We’re finally at the election. So of course Sam and Ivan talk about the definition of Univeral Time. Well, just for a few minutes. Then they skip the rest of the usual random stuff and just get to the politics. We know that is what you are all here for. They do a final look at the Election Graphs analysis of the polling situation. They talk about the latest attempts to make something happen with Hunter Biden. They talk about both the possibilities of Trump pulling out another win by the skin of his teeth and the possibility of a Biden landslide. Of course, they touch on voter suppression, SCOTUS, and the pandemic as well. Oh, and Ivan might be live streaming election night. So watch out for that! So here we go. The last show before election day!

Click below to listen and subscribe!

1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
View Podcast in iTunes
View Raw Podcast Feed
Download MP3 File
Follow the podcast on Facebook
patreon-30x30 Support us on Patreon

Show Details:

Recorded 2020-10-30
Length this week – 1:57:13

  • (0:00:01-0:04:46) Cold Open
  • (0:05:11-1:56:52) Politics
    • Universal time
    • Hunter Biden nothing burgers
    • Glen Greenwald resignation
    • Old media vs new media coverage
    • Election Graphs update
    • Early vote numbers
    • Trump odds vs blue wave odds
    • Voter suppression and SCOTUS
    • Pendemic trends and the campaign
    • CC livestream
The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch. Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link) Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link) Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link) Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: One Way Or Another

On this week’s Curmudgeon’s Corner, on the politics side, Sam and Ivan discuss Biden picking Harris, election models, current polling, and cutting people off over politics. On the pandemic side, they talk about testing and tracing, people being reckless, and many of the half measures being taken. Before all that though, Ivan reviews a book and goes on a rant about Twitter, and they discuss that Fortnight/Apple/Google thing. Enjoy!

Click below to listen and subscribe!

1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
View Podcast in iTunes
View Raw Podcast Feed
Download MP3 File
Follow the podcast on Facebook
patreon-30x30 Support us on Patreon

Show Details:

Recorded 2020-08-15
Length this week – 2:05:59

  • (0:00:43-0:32:21) But First
    • Ivan Book: Manuel Bou Gali Vida y Obra de un CorozaleГ±o [2013]
    • Twitter is not a website!
    • Fortnight / Apple / Google thing
  • (0:32:25-1:23:16) Politics
    • Biden picks Harris
    • Election models
    • Current polling
    • Cutting off people over politics
  • (1:24:25-2:05:38) Pandemic
    • Current situation
    • Testing and tracing
    • People being reckless
    • Half measures
    • Relief measures

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Cutting Wood

On this week’s Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam and Ivan review the latest pandemic news, they answer a “Question for the Corner” on what post-Trump Republicans might look like, they cover the current state of the Presidential race, and they discuss the recent hack of Twitter. Before all that though, they discuss the household projects they have been working on during the lockdown. Enjoy!

Click below to listen and subscribe!

 1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
 View Podcast in iTunes
 View Raw Podcast Feed
Download MP3 File
Follow the podcast on Facebook
patreon-30x30 Support us on Patreon

Show Details:

Recorded 2020-07-17
Length this week – 2:06:53

  • (0:00:21-0:29:59) Household Projects
  • (0:32:00-0:54:34) Pandemic
  • (0:55:53-1:41:08) Politics
  • (1:42:12-2:06:32) Hacks

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: It’s The Beach

This week on Curmudgeon’s Corner Sam and Ivan’s biggest topic is the spiraling unrest across the country in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. But they also discuss Trump’s attack on social media companies, some economic news, and even some thoughts on television and movies. And don’t worry, the pandemic is still there. It is sort of the background behind everything else at this point.

Click below to listen and subscribe!

 1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
 View Podcast in iTunes
 View Raw Podcast Feed
Download MP3 File
Follow the podcast on Facebook
patreon-30x30 Support us on Patreon

Show Details:

Recorded 2020-05-30
Length this week – 2:09:08

  • (0:01:20-0:28:24) But First
  • (0:30:25-1:11:01) Minneapolis and Beyond
  • (1:12:04-1:40:01) Trump vs Social Media
  • (1:41:22-2:08:47) Economic News

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Half the Chance

This week on Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam goes solo for the first time in years. He talks about the state of the presidential election race at the one year away mark. And of course, the latest impeachment developments are not ignored. Then some thoughts on Facebook and Twitter’s differing responses to political advertising, and the use of their platforms for social manipulation in general. Finally, a few thoughts on local elections, specifically the one Sam’s wife is running in.

Click below to listen and subscribe!

 1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
 View Podcast in iTunes
 View Raw Podcast Feed
Download MP3 File
Follow the podcast on Facebook
patreon-30x30 Support us on Patreon

Show Details:

Recorded 2019-11-02
Length this week – 1:28:00

  • (0:00:27-0:35:55) Election 2020
  • (0:36:40-0:58:40) Impeachment
  • (0:59:50-1:15:19) Political Ads
  • (1:15:57-1:27:37) Local Election

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: In and Out of It

This week on Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam and Ivan’s main topics are… Musky Stuff (Elon Musk’s various companies and how he is handling them), Twittery Stuff (Twitters challenges in dealing with abuse, fake news, user experience, and 3rd party clients), and Trumpy stuff (Omarosa, Firing Strzok, Brennan’s security clearance, NDAs, and the canceled parade). Before all that, they talk about Seattle Plane Guy a bit, and a couple more movies Sam watched recently.

Click below to listen and subscribe!

CCCover20151125bw

 

1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
View Podcast in iTunes
View Raw Podcast Feed
Download MP3 File
Follow the podcast on Facebook
patreon-30x30 Support us on Patreon

 

Show Details:

Recorded 2018-08-18
Length this week – 1:58:10

  • (0:00:25-0:21:29) But First
  • (0:24:31-0:42:15) Musky Stuff
  • (0:42:56-1:14:39) Twittery Stuff
  • (1:15:16-1:57:50) Trumpy Stuff

 

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Magnet for Dumb Pipe Thieves

On this week’s Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam and Ivan’s main topics are Election 2018, Alex Jones getting kicked off various platforms, and all the corruption in and surrounding the Trump administration. Before all that, a few bits on kid accounts for online services, a book and a movie Sam watched, and some adventures with cars.

Click below to listen and subscribe!

CCCover20151125bw

 

1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
View Podcast in iTunes
View Raw Podcast Feed
Download MP3 File
Follow the podcast on Facebook
patreon-30x30 Support us on Patreon

 

Show Details:

Recorded 2018-08-09
Length this week – 2:00:40

  • (0:00:15-0:31:02) But First
    • Agenda
    • The real Importance of the Corn Palace
    • Kid accounts for online services
    • Book: The Eyre Affair (2001)
    • Movie: Space Jam (1996)
    • Ivan’s car alarm rescue
    • Leaving keys in the car
  • (0:32:17-1:05:47) Election 2018
    • OH-12 Special Election
    • People mad at Greens
    • Primary results
    • Democratic wave?
    • State races
    • Trump effect
    • Sam votes
  • (1:06:56-1:30:02) Jones Removals
    • Platform or media?
    • Does presence of alternatives matter?
    • Private company rights
    • Human judgement and standards
    • Slippery slopes
    • Governmental vs corporate censorship
  • (1:30:46-2:00:20) Corruption
    • Wilber Ross grifting
    • VA run out of Mar-a-Lago
    • Trump Cabinet
    • Trump and family
    • Grassroots grifting
    • Manafort

 

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

I’m not reading enough. I blame Trump. And Twitter.

I’ve been thinking lately about how I have not been reading nearly enough books lately. This is a problem.

I’ve been tracking the books I read since 2006. The graph above quantifies it. Although I was bad in 2007-2009 too, I’d been keeping up a decent pace of reading from 2010-2015.

A decent pace for me anyway. My average in those years was 13.5 books per year. I know a lot of people read much more than that… and I even read more than that myself when I was much younger… but I think I’m OK with anything above 12 per year at the moment. One per month.

In 2016 I fell off a cliff though. I only finished FIVE books. In 2017 it was even worse. Only THREE.

I semi-joke that I blame Trump and Twitter, but there actually is quite a bit of truth to it. Starting with the 2016 election year, and going forward into the Trump administration, it has felt like if you turned away for even a few moments, you would miss something important happening. So all those spare moments that I previously might have spent reading a book (or even listening to an audio book), instead were spent on Twitter, listening to live news, listening to news related podcasts, or whatever.

The key being it had to be real time or near real time. Reading tweets from a few minutes ago? Of course! Reading an article that was written earlier today? OK, fine. Reading an article that was written yesterday… MAYBE, if it was a really important one, but you’re stretching it. That is way too far out of date! A magazine article from a week ago? Don’t make me laugh! A book written years ago? Doing that felt like every moment spent on that was a moment I was disengaged and out of the stream of what was happening. What did I miss in the time it took to read that chapter? That was just painful.

All of that is of course silly. Nothing bad will happen if I disengage with the news for a few minutes to read a book. Frankly, if anything really big happens, I’ll get an alert anyway. But even if I didn’t, it isn’t like I have to DO anything with that news in real time. I’m not going to be the one making big decisions in reaction to that news. I’ll talk about it on my podcast maybe, but that is a weekly thing. Maybe I’ll want to tweet, or even though I haven’t done it much in recent years, write a blog post. But all that can wait. And is frankly optional anyway.

I can take 20 minutes (or more!) at the end of the day before bed or pull up my Kindle app sometimes on my phone instead of Tweetbot when I have spare moments here or there. I can listen to an audio book on my commute home instead of a news related podcast or live news channel stream! I can! I really can!

So a few days ago I made a resolution. Lets call it an April Fool’s resolution even though it wasn’t quite on April 1st. I decided that for 2018 I’ll make a conscious effort to do a bit more book reading than I have in the last two years. Maybe I won’t exceed the 17 books finished that I hit in 2011 and 2014, but maybe I can at least beat my average over the last decade of 9.9 books per year by finishing at least 10. Maybe I can even manage a one book per month average!

I’ve finished only 1 so far this year, so I’ve got to get to it. In the last week I’ve probably already read more and listened to more audio book content than I had in the previous three months, so I guess I’m off to a decent start…

I’m way down on watching TV shows and movies too, but dealing with that can wait for another day, or maybe that is just fine…

The last “book” post I did was the list of all the books I finished in 2011. To catch up, here is a list of all the books I finished from 2012 to 2017. I used to do little mini-reviews of each book as I went along, but no time for that, so just a list… I’ll report back on 2018 once it is over to see how I did.

2012 (3 Physical, 8 Kindle, 0 Audible = 11 total)

  1. 2012-02-10, Fiction, Kindle, We the Living by Rand
  2. 2012-03-16, Non-Fiction, Physical, Beautiful Evidence by Tufte
  3. 2012-03-18, Fiction, Kindle, 2nd Chance by Patterson
  4. 2012-05-09, Non-Fiction, Physical, Alex and Me by Pepperberg
  5. 2012-05-28, Fiction, Kindle, Heavy Planet by Clement
  6. 2012-06-10, Non-Fiction, Kindle, Lies and Outliers by Schneier
  7. 2012-06-22, Fiction, Kindle, Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Weis and Hickman
  8. 2012-07-14, Non-Fiction, Kindle, The President’s Club by Gibbs and Duffy
  9. 2012-09-02, Fiction, Kindle, Roots by Haley
  10. 2012-10-01, Non-Fiction, Physical, The 4-Dimensional Manager by Straw
  11. 2012-10-07, Fiction, Kindle, Containment by Cantrell

2013 (1 Physical, 8 Kindle, 0 Audible = 9 total)

  1. 2013-01-13, Non-Fiction, Kindle, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Morris
  2. 2013-01-16, Fiction, Kindle, The Wandering Falcon by Ahmad
  3. 2013-02-06, Non-Fiction, Kindle, Kanban by Anderson
  4. 2013-03-02, Fiction, Kindle, A Time to Kill by Grisham
  5. 2013-05-20, Non-Fiction, Physical, Steve Jobs by Isaacson
  6. 2013-05-27, Fiction, Kindle, A Drink Before the War by Lehane
  7. 2013-10-04, Non-Fiction, Kindle, Bayesian Data Analysis by Gelman, Carlin, Stern, and Rubin
  8. 2013-10-19, Fiction, Kindle, Things Fall Apart by Achebe
  9. 2013-11-24, Non-Fiction, Kindle, You Are Not So Smart by McRaney

2014 (2 Physical, 7 Kindle, 8 Audible = 17 total)

  1. 2014-01-28, Fiction, Physical, The Last Town on Earth by Mullen
  2. 2014-05-21, Non-Fiction, Audible, Fear Itself by Katznelson
  3. 2014-06-20, Non-Fiction, Kindle, Making Things Happen by Berkun
  4. 2014-07-05, Fiction, Kindle, A Spark of Death by Pajer
  5. 2014-07-09, Non-Fiction, Physical, Change the Way You See Everything by Cramer and Wasiak
  6. 2014-07-16, Fiction, Audible, 11/22/63 by King
  7. 2014-08-04, Non-Fiction, Audible, Hidden America by Laskas
  8. 2014-08-18, Fiction, Audible, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Sloan
  9. 2014-09-02, Fiction, Kindle, The People of the Ruins by Shanks
  10. 2014-10-01, Non-Fiction, Audible, The Fabric of the Cosmos by Greene
  11. 2014-11-11, Fiction, Audible, The Many-Colored Land by May
  12. 2014-11-26, Non-Fiction, Kindle, Head First Java by Sierra and Bates
  13. 2014-11-26, Non-Fiction, Audible, My Beloved World by Sotomayor
  14. 2014-11-27, Fiction, Audible, Ajax Penumbra 1969 by Sloan
  15. 2014-11-29, Fiction, Kindle, Shadows in Flight by Card
  16. 2014-12-15, Non-Fiction, Kindle, The Final Days by Woodward and Bernstein
  17. 2014-12-18, Fiction, Kindle, The Ice Dragon by Martin

2015 (1 Physical, 1 Kindle, 13 Audible = 15 total)

  1. 2015-01-09, Non-Fiction, Audible, Reckless Engagement by Morgenson and Rosner
  2. 2015-01-20, Fiction, Audible, No Longer at Ease by Achebe
  3. 2015-02-12, Non-Fiction, Audible, American Emperor by Stewart
  4. 2015-03-02, Fiction, Audible, Darkness Take My Hand by Lehane
  5. 2015-03-27, Non-Fiction, Audible, Writing on the Wall by Standage
  6. 2015-04-09, Non-Fiction, Physical, The Online Advertising Playbook by Plummer, Rappaport, Hall, and Barocci
  7. 2015-04-17, Fiction, Audible, Earth Unaware by Card and Johnston
  8. 2015-05-15, Non-Fiction, Audible, The Selfish Gene by Dawkins
  9. 2015-05-18, Fiction, Kindle, Storm Front by Butcher
  10. 2015-05-22, Fiction, Audible, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Adams
  11. 2015-07-31, Non-Fiction, Audible, Autobiography of Mark Twain Volume 1 by Twain
  12. 2015-09-01, Fiction, Audible, The Scarlatti Inheritance by Ludlum
  13. 2015-10-05, Non-Fiction, Audible, The Son Also Rises by Clark
  14. 2015-10-13, Fiction, Audible, The Scarlet Plague by London
  15. 2015-12-23, Non-Fiction, Audible, Conversations with Myself by Mandela

2016 (0 Physical, 2 Kindle, 3 Audible = 5 total)

  1. 2016-01-20, Fiction, Audible, Prince Caspian by Lewis
  2. 2016-05-28, Non-Fiction, Kindle, Dutch by Morris
  3. 2016-07-02, Fiction, Kindle, Earth Afire by Card and Johnson
  4. 2016-11-15, Non-Fiction, Audible, Autobiography of Mark Twain Volume 2 by Twain
  5. 2016-11-29, Fiction, Audible, 2001 by Clarke

2017 (0 Physical, 1 Kindle, 2 Audible = 3 total)

  1. 2017-03-08, Non-Fiction, Audible, Stiff by Roach
  2. 2017-04-08, Fiction, Audible, With the Night Mail by Kipling
  3. 2017-05-30, Non-Fiction, Kindle, Spam by Brunton

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Just Playing Poker

On this week’s Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam and Ivan go all “Lightning Round”. They cover a wide variety of topics, including: State polls for 2020, talking policy vs talking scandal, the linked government shutdown and immigration debates, the Space X Falcon Heavy launch, Twitter’s release of Russia data, Ivan’s problems with his door, Rob Porter’s resignation, the aftermath of releasing “the memo”, welcoming a new patron, and much much more.

Click below to listen and subscribe!

CCCover20151125bw

 

1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
View Podcast in iTunes
View Raw Podcast Feed
Download MP3 File
Follow the podcast on Facebook
patreon-30x30 Support us on Patreon

Show Details:

Recorded 2018-02-08
Length this week – 2:06:22

  • (0:00:15-0:40:16) Lightning 1
    • Sam – Ivan birthday
    • Ivan – Ivan’s door
    • Sam – 2020 polls
    • Ivan – Model 3 Tesla
    • Sam – Facebook news ranking
    • Ivan – Falcon Heavy
  • (0:41:59-1:31:49) Lightning 2
    • Sam – Twitter Russia release
    • Ivan – Rob Porter
    • Sam – Shutdowns and immigration
    • Ivan – FBI agents affairs on text messages
    • Sam – New Patron
    • Ivan – The Memo
  • (1:32:26-2:06:01) Lightning 3
    • Sam – Stock Market
    • Ivan – Polls and Special Elections
    • Sam – Policies vs Scandals
    • Ivan – Ben Carson corruption

 

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: No End to the Stupid

This week on Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam and Ivan try to keep it short, but still go over 90 minutes. With no big huge central stories this week, it is an all lightning round show. Topics include Trump’s master plan, Flynn cooperating with Mueller, the Uber data breach, Plume Wifi, the Allison Mack sex cult, Star Trek and Star Wars, Trump being stupid again, initial iPhone X impressions, and much more. Those were only about half of the topics, so tune in to hear everything else they talked about too!

Click below to listen and subscribe!

CCCover20151125bw

 

1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
View Podcast in iTunes
View Raw Podcast Feed
Download MP3 File
Follow the podcast on Facebook
patreon-30x30 Support us on Patreon

Show Details:

Recorded 2017-11-25
Length this week – 1:31:58

  • (0:00:30-0:07:45) But First
    • Slow News Week?
    • Agenda
    • Feedback
    • Ivan travel
  • (0:08:54-0:38:29) Lightning Round #1
    • Ivan: Trump Fed Chair appointment
    • Sam: Trump judicial appointments
    • Ivan: Uber data breach and payoff
    • Sam: Movie: The Princess Bride (1987)
    • Ivan: Star Trek and Star Wars movies and TV
    • Sam: Allison Mack sex cult
    • Ivan: Nude Barton pics
  • (0:40:12-1:31:38) Lightning Round #2
    • Sam: Rogue Twitter employee
    • Ivan: iPhone X impressions
    • Sam: Plume WiFi
    • Ivan: Flynn Cooperating
    • Sam: Stupid Trump Family
    • Ivan: Trump master plan
    • Sam: AT&T / Time Warner merger
    • Ivan: Stupid Trump

 

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.