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72 entries. 21,724 words.

January, 2013

  • It’s 2013 And It’s Still Hard To Publish To A Blog. 2013-01-02 3:25 AM.
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    It is now 2013. This is an incredibly advanced, science-fiction-sounding year. Yet still, it is an incredible pain in the butt to compose and publish long-form blog posts. 2,502 words.
  • At the bottom of the cliff. 2013-01-02 11:58 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Not surprisingly, all sides reached a deal on the fiscal cliff negotiations, so the cliff was more of a pothole. It’s rather difficult to find actual information among the news reports, but it looks like, among other more mundane things, the tax increase on 200k earners that Obama was adamant about changed to a tax increase on 400k earners, which could either be considered a win for Republicans or a compromise by everyone. Either way, it still doesn’t affect me. 227 words.
  • Thoughts on Laptops. 2013-01-04 3:28 PM.
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    So I’m trying to come up with my future plan for computers. 446 words.
  • An Epic Belly Flop Of An Ending. 2013-01-07 1:08 AM.
    • Personal
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Redskins … I just … I don’t even … I can’t even describe … 16 words.
  • Snow and Comments. 2013-01-18 2:55 PM.
    • Administration
    • Personal
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    It snowed last night. A thick, wet, yucky snow that subsequently froze, accumulating to perhaps a couple of inches. I used to like snow. But now I find it just about the most annoying weather there is, with the possible exception of cold rain, which we have had for the previous week, so I suppose the snow is an improvement. On another note, I get a lot of Chinese comments. I’ll probably get one on this post. I always mark them as spam, so on the off chance that there is actually a real Chinese person out there trying to comment on my posts, sorry. 105 words.

February, 2013

  • Superbowl Something-or-Another. 2013-02-03 11:19 PM.
    • Personal
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Live blogging the Superbowl, because people on Facebook would probably be annoyed if I did this on there. 6:17 – Sandy Hook Kids: Oh, Superbowl, you’re always bringing up the depressing stuff and trying to make us cry. 6:22 – Dammit can’t find a good place for the rabbit ears. 6:23 – That was the longest Star-Spangled Banner ever. (Also a good one.) 6:27 – They should mount a camera on the coin to make this more interesting. 706 words.
  • Tunguska’s Revenge and Moons. 2013-02-21 2:52 AM.
    • Personal
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    It was a big day for Near Earth Objects last Friday. And why does Pluto have more moons than us? 433 words.
  • Furloughs Might Actually Harm Me. 2013-02-23 9:56 PM.
    • Personal
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    The potential for government furloughs is one of the rare political stories that actually might have a direct impact on my life. 348 words.
  • No More Saturday Mail. 2013-02-23 10:19 PM.
    • Commentary
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    The USPS is going to stop Saturday delivery. Now they just need to work on stopping mail delivery Monday through Friday, too. 110 words.

March, 2013

  • Sequestrated. 2013-03-02 1:39 AM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Looks like sequestration is a go. 132 words.
  • Tech at Night Like A Barrel of Fish. 2013-03-11 11:12 PM.
    • Politics
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I stumbled onto a blog called Tech at Night hosted by RedState. That’s right, you heard me, it’s a tech blog by the hyper-partisan right-wing blog RedState. 859 words.
  • Searching For News Readers. 2013-03-16 12:26 AM.
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    It’s time for me to search for a news reader. 381 words.
  • Google Keep Is What Now?. 2013-03-23 2:30 PM.
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I’m not sure I get the point of Google Keep. 81 words.

April, 2013

  • Google+ No Good As A News Reader. 2013-04-06 2:45 PM.
    • Personal
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Google+ sucks as a news aggregator. 184 words.
  • On Feedly. 2013-04-06 2:48 PM.
    • Personal
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I want to like Feedly. I really do. 129 words.
  • North Korea Trollololol. 2013-04-06 3:08 PM.
    • Commentary
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    This daily hubbub about North Korea is getting kind of ridiculous. 287 words.
  • Android Calendar Date Entry Sucks. 2013-04-06 3:19 PM.
    • Commentary
    • Personal
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    In what world is it easy to enter a month and day using these stupid radial spin dials? 171 words.
  • Twitter versus Television. 2013-04-17 12:47 AM.
    • Uncategorized
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    It was interesting to compare my reaction to the tragic news from Boston based on the delivery medium. 381 words.

May, 2013

  • Jetpack Post-by-Email. 2013-05-23 12:08 PM.
    • Administration
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I setup the post-by-email feature of the Jetpack for Wordpress plugin 49 words.
  • Stealth Poison Ivy. 2013-05-23 6:28 PM.
    • Personal
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I’m getting over a bad case (for me) of poison ivy. 377 words.
  • GIFs In The News Again. 2013-05-24 7:16 PM.
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    The debate over how to pronounce GIF is back in the tech news again. 430 words.

June, 2013

  • NBC Nightly Weather News. 2013-06-04 2:52 PM.
    • Commentary
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    When did NBC Nightly News turn into a half-hour weather show? 63 words.
  • Government Surveillance. 2013-06-07 4:50 PM.
    • Commentary
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Constant surveillance seems like a fairly logical side effect of instantaneous global communication. 314 words.
  • Is Facebook Like A Telephone Book?. 2013-06-08 4:51 PM.
    • Commentary
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Is Facebook like a telephone book? 53 words.
  • Metrics On Eating Better. 2013-06-10 4:52 PM.
    • Personal
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    There should be some kind of measurable effect when eating better. 62 words.

July, 2013

  • The Latest Trial of the Century. 2013-07-16 5:11 PM.
    • Commentary
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    So I heard something about a Zimmerman verdict? I think it was a trial or something. 282 words.
  • Throwing Out The Royal Baby. 2013-07-24 7:45 PM.
    • Commentary
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Can we please stop reporting about the Royal Baby now? 28 words.

August, 2013

  • Throwing Away Batteries. 2013-08-08 6:10 PM.
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    So at work I have a stack of dead laptop batteries from a handful of old Dell Lattitude laptops. 256 words.
  • Who Is This Edward Snowden Guy?. 2013-08-10 1:51 AM.
    • Commentary
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Today I decided to figure out why I keep hearing the name Edward Snowden so much. 725 words.
  • Codefellas. 2013-08-17 10:20 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    John Hodgman is in it. That is all. 40 words.
  • Weird Knocking. 2013-08-19 1:28 PM.
    • Personal
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    So someone knocked on my front door last night at about 10 PM. 198 words.
  • Bradley Manning Sentenced. 2013-08-24 12:26 AM.
    • Commentary
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Bradley Manning Army Photo from Wikimedia Commons I mentioned Bradley Manning in a previous post, so to follow-up on that, and to let you know that I have not yet been murdered by the strange late-night knocker I mentioned in another previous post: Manning was sentenced to 35 years. The news report that I heard (from CBS News I think) said that he might only serve 7 of those years. 151 words.
  • Comments, Huh, What Are They Good For. 2013-08-24 12:46 PM.
    • Administration
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I think I’m going to disable comments altogether. 46 words.
  • A Unique Observation On Moving. 2013-08-26 7:17 PM.
    • Personal
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this, but moving sucks. I’ll soon be moving from one rental house to a bigger, better rental house, and despite having thrown out tons of stuff in the past year, I’m still surrounded by oppressively large stacks of boxes that need to be moved. If moving boxes was the only part of it, that wouldn’t be so bad. But there’s also a thousand little errands to deal with, like hooking up utilities and FIOS, updating your driver’s license and credit cards, and forwarding your mail. (Woe be unto those who make a mistake in forwarding your mail, as I - and my neighbor - learned from painful experience. Though I’m still not convinced that *I* made the mistake of transposing a 6 and a 9.) 133 words.
  • Syrian Intervention. 2013-08-29 5:36 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I’m generally not in favor of going into Syria. 132 words.
  • Tricksy Tricksy. 2013-08-31 9:13 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Wow, what a shrewd political move by the president. 103 words.

September, 2013

  • All About Syria. 2013-09-06 1:04 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    This is the sheik topic of the day, and since we have to post stuff on our blogs now and then, we need to idly speculate about it. 940 words.
  • Syrian Rebels: Know Anyone With Guns?. 2013-09-06 4:27 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Some Syrian rebels were complaining that the U.S. hasn’t sent any weapons or ammunition. 276 words.
  • The President’s Remarks on Syria. 2013-09-11 4:31 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I only have a couple of comments about the president’s address. 473 words.
  • Followups On Moving and Furloughs. 2013-09-14 3:35 PM.
    • Personal
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I thought I would follow up on a couple of previous posts on the off chance that anyone is actually following this blog. As I hinted at before, I have moved into a new house. Boxes are everywhere, and I have only unpacked the bare minimum of things needed for day-to-day life. Essentially that means a couple of computers and some dishes. Secondly, a long time ago I mentioned that government furloughs might impact my life. Furloughs did actually go into effect during July and August, but the length was reduced roughly in half (and it had already been cut in half from the original estimates), so DoD employees were only off for about six Fridays. Nothing bad happened on those six days, so in my little corner of the world, the furlough had exactly zero effect. Most people were sad that the 4-day work weeks ended. 147 words.
  • Crazy People Are Always Out There. 2013-09-17 5:14 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    It’s all been said before. Crazy people are always out there. You can’t stop them. 194 words.
  • Subscribe-by-Email. 2013-09-18 1:56 AM.
    • Administration
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I added the Jetpack subscribe-by-email thingy over on the side. 61 words.
  • Chicken With Defunding. 2013-09-21 12:08 AM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Looks like we’re back at the ol’ debt ceiling stalemate. Or government funding stalemate. Or something like that. Is this the third one? Fourth? Hundredth? I can’t remember. It seems to happen once or twice a year now. 598 words.
  • Trying New Feed Readers. 2013-09-24 2:26 PM.
    • Personal
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I was quite excited to find three new web-based RSS readers: InoReader, Feedspot, and G2Reader. Unfortunately they are not any faster than Feedly. 204 words.
  • MacBook Air Obtained. 2013-09-27 12:22 AM.
    • Personal
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I was finally ready to get a “thin-and-light” laptop for writing and web surfing, so I decided I couldn’t get much thinner and lighter than a MacBook Air. 146 words.
  • Back to the House We Go. 2013-09-27 6:36 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    As fully expected by everyone, the Senate removed the defund-Obamacare provision and returned the budget bill to the House. 156 words.
  • Bring On The Shutdown I Guess. 2013-09-28 9:05 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Well, it looks like the House Republicans are determined to shut down the government because now they’ve put in a clause to fund the government only if Obamacare is delayed for a year. 302 words.
  • An Odd Time For a Late Opening. 2013-09-30 5:26 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    You have to wonder about the logic of waiting until 2 PM to open the Senate for business on the final day before an alleged government shutdown. 110 words.
  • Back to the House We Go, Part Two. 2013-09-30 7:08 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    The Senate spat the funding bill back to the House in record time. Less than ten hours left for the United States government! 74 words.

October, 2013

  • Journalists Aren’t Helping, Gotta Watch Live. 2013-10-01 1:39 AM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Journalists are really pretty useless in this day and age, so I’m watching C-SPAN live to see what’s going on with this funding bill. What could be more exciting than counting votes? 399 words.
  • It’s A Libertarian Paradise. 2013-10-01 12:59 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    No last-second midnight deal after all, but I still have to believe the House won’t let this shutdown go on for very long. 195 words.
  • House Tries Reverse Psychology. 2013-10-02 3:01 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    "If we can’t pass a bill that defunds Obamacare, let’s try passing many different bills that fund everything except Obamacare." 38 words.
  • What’s Really At Stake Here. 2013-10-03 8:56 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    This has nothing to do with whether Obamacare is good, bad, or indifferent. What’s at stake is whether factions in Congress should have the power to circumvent the normal process of making laws so they can enforce their will on the whole country. 633 words.
  • Say What Now?. 2013-10-04 12:28 AM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    In other news, it looks like the Obama administration is bringing us a few steps closer to a police state. 157 words.
  • Why Jon Stewart Usually Resonates. 2013-10-04 11:46 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I guess when you look at an issue without layers and layers of self-delusional partisan rhetoric in the way, and just focus on the absurdity of it, you can’t help but come up with a consistent view of who did what, when, and why. 264 words.
  • It’s Okay, It’s Just A Slimdown. 2013-10-07 2:02 AM.
    • Uncategorized
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    A “slimdown” doesn’t sound nearly as bad as a “shutdown,” right? 144 words.
  • DoD Civilians Back At Work. 2013-10-07 1:16 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Using the Pay Our Military Act, Chuck Hagel put most DoD civilians back to work. 83 words.
  • Turnabout Is Fair Play. 2013-10-15 1:09 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Seems to be some buzz now about a bi-partisan deal the Senate is cooking up to open the government and raise the debt ceiling. The deal sounds like it goes something like this: "Let’s do this exact same shutdown and debt ceiling drama again in February." Because it’s not so much a deal as it is a postponement of a deal. 185 words.
  • Back to the Senate We Go. 2013-10-16 4:02 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Today we are assured (again) that the Senate deal is close and will save us all, and everybody will approve it, and everything will be back to normal. Until January. If House Republicans go for it. Which based on their past performance, you have to think they won’t. Because if they do, then they did all this for nothing. 167 words.
  • See You Back Here In January. 2013-10-17 2:23 AM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I’m watching on C-SPAN.org as the House is voting to adopt the Senate’s bill to fund the government until January and raise the debt ceiling until February, which the Senate passed today 81-18. Everyone expects it to pass. 237 words.
  • It’s Nothing Like A Credit Card!. 2013-10-17 1:05 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I was watching C-SPAN last night and saw Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) speaking about the debt ceiling when he stumbled into a pet peeve of mine. He was describing the debt ceiling and what it means to raise it. Naturally he went to the go-to analogy that everyone uses when discussing the debt ceiling: It’s like paying your mortgage with your credit card. 446 words.
  • Weird Things That Freak Me Out. 2013-10-21 1:09 PM.
    • Personal
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Weird things that freak me out: The sound that one of those county trash cans makes when rolling it to the end of the driveway for pickup. 76 words.
  • I Really Have To Say This?. 2013-10-23 6:46 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    The problems with Healthcare.gov are entirely unrelated to whatever problems are in the law. Saying the healthcare law is bad because the web site is broken is like saying speed limits are bad because your car broke down. 286 words.
  • Healthcare.gov Contractors Declare: Not It. 2013-10-25 6:00 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    It’s extremely clear what the contractors are saying in their Congressional testimony: "Everything worked fine when we delivered it, so don’t blame us." 381 words.

November, 2013

  • Hacking Data Pipes Not That Bad. 2013-11-01 3:38 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Nobody hacked into anyone’s servers. They only tapped into the raw data stream between the servers. 573 words.
  • Discovering Comments On Old Posts. 2013-11-04 1:04 PM.
    • Personal
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I happened to look at one of my more popular posts recently and discovered there’s a boatload of comments on it! I had no idea. 209 words.
  • Big Mistake or a Big Lie. 2013-11-06 3:48 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I’m not one of those people who thinks that "making a big mistake" is the same as "lying," but now that plenty of people are losing their existing plans, he’s getting hammered for lying to us. 384 words.
  • Trying To Make Sense of Insurance Premiums. 2013-11-08 7:18 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Normally if I see an article titled "Obamacare destroying lives, killing business," I skip it, because it’s obviously going to be partisan rhetoric, especially coming from RedState, a political blog which thrives on such. But for some reason I went through with reading this article, because I saw that it was a (supposedly) real-life example of someone who is being forced to buy a more expensive plan with less benefits under Obamacare. 369 words.
  • A Lucky Political Disaster. 2013-11-14 5:34 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I think it’s safe to say now that the Obamacare rollout has been a total disaster, and Democrats have no choice but to make some concessions (or "fixes"). Even if it wasn’t really a disaster, it’s solidified in the national consciousness as a disaster, and perception is reality in politics. 221 words.
  • So Over Obamacare. 2013-11-21 6:31 PM.
    • Politics
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I’m over the whole Obamacare apocalypse now. It’s no longer a topic of interest. 691 words.

December, 2013