Degeneration

 

Oh those youths. This is in honor of those doing their senior project, I feel like they could be the next generation but I honestly don't know where those breaks are. According to Wikipedia, yeah the generation following mine would include current college seniors (and high school ones too). Good luck anyways on your senior projects! I'm a Millennial (not to be confused with amillennial), which apparently has two 'n's in it. Who knew, not me. I should remake this comic. Ok, it's good now. I feel every generation thinks the following one is the Degeneration. Talking about the next generation has me thinking about Star Trek. Post-Millennials is referencing a belief about the end times timeline - there are many strong opinions on when the Millennium will happen and I'm still surprised that there's two 'n's in there. 

Text:
M: What do you call the generation after us? Are they Post-Millennials?
L: Degeneration.

Internet of Things State of Security

My talented little brother sent me the "S in IoT" phrase and linked the article mentioned. This same brother, when I sent him this article about the Mars Bar Rover, responded with "the future is here, and it's vaguely disappointing." Also, this same brother is a senior down at PCC and if you're also at PCC (how did you find my blog?) you should go to his Software Engineering Expo which is this week! Go find the info, I'm sure it's all over campus (or there's probably a poster in the AC lobby). Back in my day we made a super cool video and they played it in chapel or student body which was cool. 

To explain the comic, IoT stands for Internet of Things and references how so many smart items are now able to connect to the internet but are not at all secure so bad people can do unfortunate things via these items (hence there is no 'S' in the acronym 'IoT'). When in doubt, don't put it on or allow it to connect to the internet. We had to shop specifically for a baby monitor that just communicated from the camera to the tablet, no internet needed. I have no desire to have internet cameras in my house. If you do have IoT items, please change the default passwords to something secure (you can tape it to the item since those trying to hack in shouldn't be in your house, if they are then you have bigger issues). 

Text:
La: Did you hear about the casino that was hacked via their fish tank's smart thermometer?
Lu: Well, the "S" in "IoT" stands for "security."

Ode to Rogganart

 

If I try, I'm sure I could make a haiku about their amazing pastries, but at this time I've just made a quick little poem. Roggenart is an excellent European-style bakery and bistro that's nearby. We like to go there for breakfast and then go to a park (when the weather is nice) to enjoy our babkas and brioches and danishes or whatever has struck our fancy that morning. Everything there is super tasty and the staff is really nice. They have indoor seating and outdoor covered seating, which is nice on not-so-nice days when the park isn't a great option. To be fair, I also like American donuts, specifically the fresh kind from local small shops like the Donut Shack or down at the beach Duck Donuts or Sandy Pony, but there is just something super special about freshly baked buttery, fruity, chocolatey pastries. 

Text:
Title: Ode to Roggenart
"American donuts are very tasty
But you can't go wrong with a European pastry"

Stamina Wheel

 

We went out shopping one Saturday to a few stores and wow, I was really worn out at the end. It should not have been that tiring but it was due to me carrying around an extra 25lbs or so and also getting my nutrients leached out of me. The stamina wheel is a mechanism in many video games, I know it from Legend of Zelda, which shows your character's endurance level. It usually decreases when you do something strenuous like climbing a wall or using fancy fighting moves. 

Text:
M: You seem worn out after our shopping trip.
L: My stamina wheel is very small in the last month of pregnancy.

Bath Salts

This is referencing that event back in 2012 when a Florida man was attacking people and somehow he was affected by bath salts to do so. I never looked too much into it because it sounded gross and for the same reason, I'm not linking any articles on that event. You can look it up if you so choose. Well actually I just looked it up a little more and Today I Learned 'bath salts' is a term for a street drug which resembles Epsom salts. The bath salts we got are the top ones from this list - they aim to recreate a visit to the hot springs and they do make a relaxing experience. We have been to hot springs once (in Canada) and it was a nice time. We bought water shoes for the adventure but haven't used them since. 

Text:
M: I bought some fancy bath salts but the packaging is all in Japanese - do I put in a whole packet?
L: We don't live in Florida so it should be fine?

80's Fashion

 

I forget what prompted this conversation, but I agree with my husband here in that all those florescent colors and baggy, plastic-like material was a bad plan to begin with. I think Back to the Future Part II (but really the whole series to an extent) really embodies this. It's a classic movie, but wow the fashion or lack thereof was rather astounding. As this slideshow shows, it wasn't all bad but most of it was :)

Text:
L: Describe 80's fashion -
M: We want to be like the future, but ugly.

How to Keep a Secret

So far we have kept the gender (and name) of our soon-to-be-born kiddo a secret, with the due date quickly approaching we only have a little longer to keep it hidden. I know we have slipped up a few times but I don't think people have noticed (I think one person did but that individual seems to be keeping it a secret which is very nice). 

Is this a hypothetical conversation between my mom and my husband? Perhaps :) 

Text:
L: Why won't you tell us the gender of your soon-to-be-born child???
M: Can you keep a secret?
L: YES!!!
M: So can we :) 

Happy Little JUnit Test

 My husband and I were talking about testing and this scenario came to mind. The purpose of a JUnit test is to test a small area of your code. It should only pass if the code is doing what it is suppose to be doing - you should be able to change the input and see the test fail. Then you can design extra tests to verify that giving wrong or garbage input throws the expected exception. But if your happy path test passes no matter what you input, that's not really doing anything for you. 

Text:
L: Your JUnit test is useless - it never fails, no matter the input.
C: It's a happy test!

Al Dente Chicken

This one time, Mark and I were out for dinner and I ordered steak and he ordered chicken and the waiter asked me how I wanted my steak done so I told him, but then he asked Mark how he wanted his chicken done and Mark was not prepared to answer. I think he said 'all the way?' but I think at that point the waiter realized his mistake and probably cringed for the rest of the night. I don't even want to know what al dente chicken would be - apparently it means 'firm to the bite' which would probably mean very overcooked chicken, or possibly burnt? You don't want harden chicken.

Text:
W: How do you like your chicken cooked?
M: Al dente?

Never Fully Dressed Without A

 I'm sure someone else has done this already but I don't recall what got this song in my head then I just needed to get it comic'd out. Yes, that is Little Orphan Annie from the musical, "Little Orphan Annie." It has been a while since I watched it, I think the last time was a live performance by a high school group but it was several years ago. We had the Carol Burnett version on VHS growing up so that's the one I'm most familiar with. It would be rather different if Annie was adopted by Fauci, I feel like there's a pandemic variant (haha, maybe not the best wording) that could be made with that idea. 

I thought about drawing cute designs on the masks but that was quickly determined to be too tedious. 

Annie is singing without a mask, I feel like the comic needs a disclaimer like commercials have about 'closed course' or 'filmed responsibly' or whatever they're saying now. 

Text:
Annie: (singing) You're never fully dressed without a -
Dr. Fauci: MASK!!! *with two handfuls of masks, wearing two masks and a face shield*

Pick Your Battles Part 2

 

This is a direct response to an earlier comic about picking too many battles. You can go too far in either direction. Clearly. But some days you just don't feel like picking a hill to die on. When in doubt, just crochet :) No dying on hills needed. But standing for nothing means falling for everything? So limit your selection of battles wisely.

Text:
A:  Pick your battles!
B: *thinking*
A: No, wait....
B: *crosses arms, looking at the items symbolizing battles*
A: Take at least one!
B: *walking away with none*

Hot and Cross Buns

 

Happy Resurrection Day! Hot cross buns are a classic Easter food and I like them as long as they don't have raisins in them (many of them do). I'm just not a fan of raisins in my bread. I know many people like them like that and I will leave them to them and just have a donut. Because if you get the good donuts, like from the Donut Shack near my dentist, they are just amazing. I wonder if the European bakery near me will have hot cross buns in their lineup around Easter time. They just added brioche sticky buns and brioche cinnamon buns, and both are amazing. 

Text:
Donut 1: Look out - the buns are hot and cross.
Donut 2: *startled!* 
Hot Cross Buns: *steaming angrily* 

Easter Egg Painting

 I thought of this last year and placed it in a place to find it in time for this Easter! I'm quite happy with my organizational skills. Usually I put the holiday ones in a safe place and only find them after the given holiday. That's not the most helpful. The craft is a mash-up of two recipes - clearly the one is deviled eggs but the other is where you take a raw egg, poke the holes, blow it out, then you can use the guts for scrambled eggs or whatever while you have the whole egg shell to paint beautifully. You can't hard boil a shell-less egg - the closest thing I can think of would be poaching, which I've never done. 

Text:
L: So we can hard boil the eggs, poke a pin hole in the top and bottom, blow the egg out while saving the shell, then I can paint the shells while you make deviled eggs!
M: Hang on...