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dead_sea_blogs [2026/05/28 04:06] – thehomelanddead_sea_blogs [2026/10/15 23:36] (current) – [Wednesday, October 7, 2026] thehomeland
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 ===== Dead Sea Blogs ===== ===== Dead Sea Blogs =====
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 The Dead Sea Blogs (DSB) is one of my oldest projects for the domain here, thehomeland.org.  The Dead Sea Blogs (DSB) is one of my oldest projects for the domain here, thehomeland.org. 
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 I am considering the idea of making a separate Dead Sea Blogs wiki installation, just by itself, so that this wiki here is not quite as public-facing, but I will likely still reference this one on occasion. This will give me a chance to decorate or otherwise visually customize specifically the DSB section without forcing those UI/design changes on the rest of the wiki.  I am considering the idea of making a separate Dead Sea Blogs wiki installation, just by itself, so that this wiki here is not quite as public-facing, but I will likely still reference this one on occasion. This will give me a chance to decorate or otherwise visually customize specifically the DSB section without forcing those UI/design changes on the rest of the wiki. 
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 +
 +==== Thursday, October 15, 2026 ====
 +----
 +
 +It appears my desires to update the Krillion, Connections, and Wordle stats pages (linked in prev) have plummeted, so they may not resume updates for some time. 
 +
 +I found an interesting genetic testing site which can be requested/ordered without a doctor visit, and I curious about a few tests they offer. [[https://www.invitae.com/providers/test-catalog/test-434341|Invitae]] looks like it offers a wide range of possible genetic-condition tests which could be very helpful for diagnostic purposes, as I have several mystery conditions including some curious hypermobility concerns, kidney stone conditions, and general gut/bile maladies that would be lovely to at least rule out options for. 
 +
 +Started a new article I will call [[zeitvibe|Zeitvibe]] which will be a very loosely news-like log of news items which have hit my algos, mainly to keep a general log of events which correspond to dates, rather than details of those events, which will likely contain political events. I don't like dipping too much into politics, so I hope to keep it light. The article title is based on the concept of the "zeitgeist" of pop culture events on the collective mind of the populace, mixed with the vibes I'm picking up. There could be very niche subjects particular to me, such as Destiny 2 news or tiktokers I'm into. 
 +
 +==== Wednesday, October 7, 2026 ====
 +----
 +
 +I added a little link to the left column called [[https://destroy.spritefusion.com/?url=https://thehomeland.org/mainmenu/doku.php|Destroy this website]] which is a cool little web link which lets you input any web address, the link will cache a rendering of the site, and then you can use arrows/WASD to move a little dude around which has around 10 weapons of varying destruction and grenades to destroy wherever the mouse is pointed and clicked, and can double jump and jetpack to wherever remaining you wish to land. Some sites like w3.org wont work on it, because of pre-load captchas, or like my own root doesn't work since mine redirects. I am tempted to make a different root redirect, just to give that site something to blow up =) 
 +
 +The summer is nearly over for my work, and the summer workload has so thoroughly occupied my patience for documenting game scores that I fell behind on basically everything I kept record of except for the [[https://thehomeland.org/mainmenu/doku.php?id=dailyjumbleanswers|Jumble]] (such as [[https://thehomeland.org/mainmenu/doku.php?id=wordlegrids|Wordle]], [[https://thehomeland.org/mainmenu/doku.php?id=connectionsdid|Connections]], and [[https://thehomeland.org/mainmenu/doku.php?id=krillionstats|Krillion]]). I did keep the screen-crop of the scores during that time, so I could update them someday, but the summer workload has blasted away such diligence for now. 
 +
 +Hopefully this weekend I can spend a goodly amount of time updating the [[https://thehomeland.org/mainmenu/doku.php?id=waitwaitbillvoice|Bill Kurtis]] and the [[https://thehomeland.org/mainmenu/doku.php?id=car_talk_hearsus|Car Talk]] lines I collect, as I now have NPR+ membership which lets me hear zillions of back episodes.
 +
 +Today I bowled my trios league game (161, 177, 180 scratch; 71 hdcp) and was pitted against the very-smiley retired-guy trio who are eager to laugh with at everything interpretable as a positive spin, as it were. For example, we scored higher than they did (+hdcp) on 2 out of 3 games, and the scorekeeper for our table reported our team had the best game of the season so far.. to which one of the smiley retired bunch spun it to be, "it sure seems like every team we come up against suddenly has their best games, and, laughing, "I guess our team really brings out the best in others." 
 +
 +My parents bought a Kia Carnival this week or so, and it is the first vehicle of the family to my knowledge which has screens for a dashboard instead of physical dials. I am not too fond of this trend, but there is little say in it.  Their last vehicle had miniature screens for certain parts of the dash, like to indicate doors open or tire pressures low, but still had physical dials for speedometer and a few others. 
 +
 +
 +==== Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ====
 +----
 +
 +Have not been updating much due to heaviness of workload over the summer at my jorb, whereas I typically update from there. I've gotten out of the habit of updating all of the game scores except for the [[dailyjumbleanswers|Jumble]]s.
 +
 +I did make a few new entries randomly without mentioning them yet here, such as [[nprplusqueries|NPR Plus Asks]] which is a list of questions I want to ask Peter and guest/producer if I ever get picked to appear on the Wait Wait wayback episodes that I'd like to work the nerve up to participate in. Now that I'm an NPR Plus supporter, I have better access to back episodes to fill out the [[waitwaitstats|Wait Wait Stats]] page's Bill Kurtis voice line section, and the Car Talk [[car_talk_hearsus|Hears Us]] line list. 
 +
 +Also made the [[muchiness]] article (how similar things are), the Redivvyry spin-off [[Reduddyry]] of mostly FB video shares my dad sends me (altho they are mostly maga-political, but some of them are silly), and [[subjectswondered|Subjects Wondered]] about and what I found out. 
 +
 +==== Thursday, August 27, 2026 ====
 +----
 +
 +Launched a new bigger project here called [[redivvyry|Redivvyry]] to be a kind of Fark/Wimp/Waxy-inspired link blog of a date, a where, and a headline link. 
 +
 +Also added [[krillionstats|Krillion Stats]] to track my scores for the silly daily trivia game [[https://krillion.io/|Krillion.io]] which asks you category-type questions which have multiple answers, and it rates you on a scale of obscurity of answer, around an underwater krill/plankton theme. 
 +
 +August is one of my most common kidney stone months, and I have done OK so far without any incidents, and need to maintain my hydration. Some time ago, I made a few different kinds of ways to track them, but the one I have kept up with the most is trying to tick off as many boxes as I can on a 1.5L per day goal, [[https://thehomeland.org/gentools/GPT-tablespoons2.htm|here]] whereas drinking a 28oz container checks 55 boxes (55%), 20oz for 40%, and 12oz for 25%. I also have a little cup that I marked off which grants a 10% progress on knocking that back, to push me over the 100% mark if needed. That tracker as stuck with me the longest.
 +
 +If you ever want to quickly remove all of the parts of a web address starting at (and including) the ? mark, like YouTube links which tack on a share-ID, just paste it into [[https://thehomeland.org/gentools/GPT-QABscrub.htm|this tool]] (QAB means Question And Beyond) and click the convert button. Just tapping the URL below that will copy to clipboard, but also has a separate copy-to-clipboard button if desired, and tested to work on Windows and iOS' Safari just fine. 
 +
 +
 +==== Thursday, August 20, 2026 ====
 +----
 +
 +Had a lightning-bolt thought on the [[wordlegrids|Wordle Grids]] concept, now that I know how to do a carriage return within a table cell, so I experimented a bit a redesigned it. I was reluctant to just delete the entire grid system I had from the old way, so I preserved it on a new article [[wordlegridold|Wordle Grids of Old]] to be automatically shuffled into the won't-update category. I am slowly converting all of my old results and many more I have stowed.
 +
 +I still pay most of my bills by check and snail mail, and I often buy the little $1 sheet of stickers you might see on a retail sidecap somewhere, to add a pinch of flair to the return address portion of the envelope. I also ran out of the freebie address labels companies used to send to you for being a customer, so I've decided I would buy packs of tiny blank stickers (such as the colored dots used in garage sales) and hand-write my return addr including a [[https://what3words.com/clip.apples.leap|what3words]] phrase that is absolutely perfect for me and happens to land on my property, as an extra dose of silliness.  It's a bummer I can't share the phrase without doxing myself =)
 +
 +==== Sunday, August 16, 2026 ====
 +----
 +
 +I feel like I have added a few more wiki entries without mentioning them, but what I can remember is today, I updated the [[https://thehomeland.org/mainmenu/doku.php?id=gpt_converters_tools|GPT Coverters/Tools]] page with a highly obscure method of [[https://thehomeland.org/gentools/GPT-primes-5to3.htm|altering]] a cut-pasted list of prime numbers to a differently-sorted list, and a [[https://thehomeland.org/gentools/GPT-QABscrub.htm|way to scrub links]] of all characters inclusive-and-after the first question mark, to ensure associated ?ref= type info doesn't get included when sharing links to videos like tiktok or instagram. 
 +
 +According to my [[https://thehomeland.org/mainmenu/doku.php?id=mostrecent|Recent Entries]] list, I also made a page that helped me to [[https://thehomeland.org/mainmenu/doku.php?id=membib|memorize]] the non-Catholic order of the 66 books of the judeochristian bible. I wanted to do so in order to join a certain church bragging-rights mini-"club" of being able to recite them. Using the listed mnemonics, I was indeed able to do so. 
 +
 +==== Wednesday, July 29, 2026 ====
 +----
 +Made another wiki article, [[physmedsauce|Physical Media Sources]] about my books/dvd/vhs/etc titles, sources, and costs starting that day. I may have actually //completed// an article, and it is odd to say that it is complete: [[techdiffprizes|Technical Difficulties Prizes]] had naturally a finite number of episodes, and I got thru every one I could find, and documented the prizes thereof (does anyone ever use 'hereof' I wonder), and weirdly, ran out of things to update there unless they resume announcing additional silly prizes. 
 +
 +I'm thinking about starting either an IG or FB page, which updates when churches in my city change their outside lettering marquees with whatever it newly states each time. There are at least 2 in town that have typically-entertaining quips on them, periodically with some kind of pun line of a religious nature. I went thru today looking around google maps for churches and made a list, then dragged the little man icon to each one's roads to see if they even have such a marquee, and have a decent list. It would make for a fun drive around town to capture updated pics each weeked to find out if any have changed, as a neat low-stakes project to maintain.
 +
 +There's a neat [[https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/1v9aoog/spanish_aerial_firefighters_from_the_43rd_air/|reddit video]] called "Spanish aerial firefighters from the 43rd Air Force Group resupply their Canadair with water in the Port of Malaga" that I hope isn't AI, because it sure is neat. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadair_CL-415|This]] is what a Canadair looks like, which has water scoops, and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_M%C3%A1laga|this]] is the Port of Malaga wikipedia. 
 +
 +==== Tuesday, July 21, 2026 ====
 +----
 +
 +I made another wiki, to track the [[quarterstats|decades]] stats for each roll of "dingy" quarters I get from the bank; A year+ ago I began collecting the W-mint-mark quarters, but soon thereafter also began to collect quarters from the last 4 decades of the 1900s, and I find it interesting to note how many of each decade I get from each roll.  I try to ask for "dingy" rolls of quarters, as they tend to vary the most in 1900s potential, as rolls which have shiny quarters on the ends tend to be all the same year and therefore useless to my collection. I am known at my bank as the guy who asks for the "dingy" quarters if any are available, and sometimes the teller will try to hunt down others rather than the ones they've been allotted. 
 +
 +I am grappling with the possibility of having Celiac disease, and have tried my hand at making a gluten-free cookie, although so far it has been more like nugget than cookie. I have decided to call them Cocoato (portmanteau of coconut, oatmeal, and potato) because of the ingredients: coconut oil, potato starch, and oatmeal. 
 +
 +=== Cocoato Recipe ===
 +Ingredients:
 +  * 2 tbsp potato starch, w/ 4 tbsp water
 +  * 2 tbsp coconut oil (warmed only until clear)
 +  * 1 cup rolled oats
 +
 +1/ Mix potato starch and water and stir until milky-colored. Microwave 15s, remove from microwave and stir, then microwave 10s. Mix should now be a translucent gel-paste. Microwave times may vary. 
 +
 +2/ Put starch gel into mixing bowl, and spoon in the coconut oil atop, and mix lightly.
 + 
 +3/ Dump rolled oats on top, and hand-knead together. Be careful, as the gel may be pretty warm, but will cool down slowly enough to handle when the oats mix in. Knead it like a snowball, then flatten it out into a bowl shape in the pit of one hand, and hand-scoop any oats left into the bowl into the bowl-shape, and close over and knead it into a snowball again.
 +
 +4/ Repeat the bowl-shape/ scoop/ dump, knead process again until as many oats are stuck inside the ball. 
 +
 +5/ On a cookie sheet with parchment paper, flatten ball like you might a pizza crust, and then cut with a butter knife into nugget sizes. 
 +
 +6/ Refrigerate 1hr. 
 +
 +This is my current recipe; I will update it and possibly make its own wiki later. 
 +
 +
 +==== Tuesday, July 7, 2026 ====
 +----
 +Welp, the [[wordlegrids|Wordle score documenting]] concept was a neat idea and it was fun to devise how to document it in dokuwiki table format with no colors, but the process quickly became unfun to me, so I slacked on it enough to just discontinue it. I'll leave it up in case I ever want to return to it (and I do still keep a record of all my solves elsewhere), but I'll just deprecate it. Ooh, maybe I could make a page of deprecated pages I don't keep up with anymore. I have had a hankering instead to make a similar page of [[connectionsdid|Connections]] puzzle results, but it won't be exhaustive.. just the ones I've completed, since I can't go back to check old ones. 
 +
 +Another page I started recently was a list of [[techdiffprizes|silly wordplay prizes]] that are awarded at the end of the panel-show style games made by The Technical Difficulties, a YT show spread across multiple accounts. I was originally going to title it prizes of a certain show of theirs, but then I noticed they have multiple shows, often with the similar style of silly prizes awarded, so I made it inclusive of the other shows. 
 +
 +Another page I started recently was [[bringmethehead|Alfredo Garcia]] jokes from the BBC Radio 4 show, [[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnwb/episodes/player|I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue]] where a running gag is to include some pun on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bring_Me_the_Head_of_Alfredo_Garcia|Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia]] (film, 1974) in various segments requesting lists of something, such as "films a gardener might like" being Bring Me The Hedge of Alfredo Garcia. I am a long-time listener of the show and have a large archive of them, and I remember hearing the joke many times, but finding them all again may be painstaking, as, well, that's the only one I have so far. 
 +
 +==== Sunday, June 28, 2026 ====
 +----
 +I had a quick thought I need to jot down before I forgot it. I think maybe one reason people like me with disordered thinking (or thinking which hops subject to subject quickly without much ability to stay on a single topic long, unless reasons) have such cluttery houses, is because a familiar object is visually connected to a memory, and if I can set out a familiar set of memory-tied objects, I can, in a sense, restructure the pattern my brain hops from subject to subject, instead of that hopping being exclusively random. If I can fill a familiar space with lots of things which have pleasant memories connected to them, no matter where I look I can have more-ordered thinking, but if I am looking at absence-of-memory-tied-objects, or decluttered spaces, the pattern of thinking tends to hop far-more randomly, with potential into stumbling into downward spiral territory. This might be a neat subject to explore as a kids book. 
 +
 +==== Wednesday, June 24, 2026 ====
 +----
 +
 +One thing I enjoy doing regularly is journaling, and bowling. I have been recording all of my practice, league, and tournament scores into my journal each time, and over the years have been at odds on how to go about it. In the last volume I resolved to change the way I had been doing it (drawing frame grids onto the page, but they were very wobbly lines bc I have tremors). This volume I decided to use grid paper for the lines, and then snipped them out to tape them, but I realized doing that too frequently would change the thickness of the journal too, so this was out. I also considered buying a cheap ($20) thermal label printer at Wal-Mart which lets you design stickers on an app with AI, but that would have the same thickness problem, despite being stickers which I love using). I decided instead to go the rubber stamp route: I designed 2 stamps in MS paint by the pixel (ignore the dots, used for spacing) -- 
 +
 +(a) a row of 3 frames such as:
 +^  .  ^  .  ^  .  ^  .  ^  .  ^  .  ^
 +|  .  ||  .  ||  .  ||
 +
 +(b) a row of one 3-round framed cell for the 10th, and then a space for totals/handicaps:
 +^  .  ^  .  ^  .  ^  ......... ^
 +|  .  |||  .   |
 +
 +Each one of those will be its own stamp, so I can ink into the journal the first one three times, and then one for the last one, without influencing the journal thickness. I have also been printing out grids to a little clipboard so I can hand-write each of my scores as I get them, and now instead of printing them I can just make stamped versions of them, knocking out 2 issues in one go. Ordered them today from [[https://www.rubberstampchamp.com/|RubberStampChamp.com]] (my first order from them). If this works out, I have another stamp of higher importance to order from them =) 
 +
 +
 +==== Tuesday, June 16, 2026 ====
 +----
 +
 +I thought of another section for [[bowlingideas|Bowling Ideas]]: to name all of the spares with a single pin remaining, one for each pin and with a little backstory for why it needs to be completed, such as the lost kid (the pin) frozen in place in panic, who needs to reunite with its parent (the ball) who runs up and scoops it up to safety.  I only thought of a few, and hopefully can immortalize an elderly bowler pal in the process. 
 +
 +==== Monday, June 8, 2026 ====
 +----
 +Started 2 more wiki entries: [[misdirections|Misdirection Humor]] as a list examples of a silly dialogue option frequently found in British humor, where you introduce a subject, then start another sentence seeming about the first subject, before revealing it is about another. Also, a list of all the [[powerfulsites|Powerful Websites You Should Know]] made by Matty McTech, notably inclusive of the silly tabs he shows open.  Neither of them are well populated, but serve as a place for me to put them when I encounter them.
 +
 +I also made a new social media account which hoards usernames found following a certain pattern: [[https://www.threads.com/@coherentgamertags|Coherent Gamertags]] posts screenshots (often cropped) of gamertags (gaming usernames on the Xbox Live service) which offer more than just a name, as if they were a short bio, like "Billy the Kid" instead of just Billy. 
 +
 +
 +==== Friday, June 5, 2026 ====
 +----
 +I made another wiki entry: a partial list of [[sonysocials|Sony Social Media Accts]], for the purposes of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erdgM5Yyc9I&t=6m42s|Aztecross']] community, inspired by a former Sony social media admin who revealed a neat hot tip about how to help Sony get word out better thru their marketing analysis.
 +
 +Bought my first lawnmower in about 20 years, an all electric, as I'm having to mow it myself nowadays; my parents have until this year insisted on doing it despite not even being at their house because I don't do it right or soon enough in their yard-nazi views, but it's too expensive to hire someone and they've decided they're too old now to keep up with it. Dad had previously given me a hand-me-down all-electric which operated by cord only, but this one is battery-powered. I am fiercely allergic to grass to the point that I cannot breathe even if driving past city median mowers and my windows are up with no AC going. I bought a painters' suit to wear when mowing, and have a legit gas mask I plan to use, no matter how sweaty I get. 
 +
 +==== Tuesday, June 2, 2026 ====
 +----
 +
 +Made yet another project which would likely take eons to complete: [[wordlegrids|Wordle Grids]], which would take all of my Wordle pastes since Sept 2025 and put them in doku-wiki tables with -b, -y, and -g next to the guessed letter to indicate the background color of the paste. I keep all of my Wordle scores and guesses, and now I can document them =)  I have long been a huge fan of HTML tables, and making Dokuwiki tables is much faster, altho they lack a lot of features of HTML tables like background colors. 
  
 ==== Wednesday, May 27, 2026 ==== ==== Wednesday, May 27, 2026 ====
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 I'm really in just kind of a general funk, a harbor of sorrows so to speak, about the state of Destiny 2, but tomorrow offers hope with the new TWID, at least.  I'm really in just kind of a general funk, a harbor of sorrows so to speak, about the state of Destiny 2, but tomorrow offers hope with the new TWID, at least. 
- 
- 
  
 ==== Tuesday, May 26, 2026 ==== ==== Tuesday, May 26, 2026 ====

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